ager went so far as to say that there was no leaf disease
under the shade trees. Mr. Reilly, of Hillgrove Estate, said there was
much less leaf disease under the shade trees. Another planter of great
experience told me that leaf disease begins on the coffee in the open, and
then spreads into even the finest trees under shade, but that those are
affected in less degree. "In the end," he said, "You see the estate all
yellow, but with green patches of coffee under the shade trees." In short,
I found that all the planters I consulted were agreed in saying that there
was but a small amount of leaf disease under the shade trees. The estates
on the Nilgiri slopes have been originally all in the open, but latterly
shade has been encouraged on some estates, but not to a degree which in
Mysore would be called shade. However, the shade was quite sufficient, as
we have seen, to illustrate the important fact that shade can control leaf
disease. And as shade can control leaf disease, I need hardly say that it
is of the utmost importance (just as it is as regards Borer), to carefully
fill up at once all spots where shade is deficient, because this
deficiency encourages leaf disease, and forms a breeding ground for spores
to fly into the surrounding coffee. Open spots here and there may not
strike one at first sight as being of much importance, but if they are all
added together, the planter will see that they will amount to a
considerable area of land, and quite sufficient, at any rate, to inoculate
his plantation with leaf disease.

The reader will observe that I have said that leaf disease may be reduced
within practically speaking harmless limits if the coffee is judiciously
shaded with good caste shade trees, and I would call particular attention
to the term good caste trees, because bad caste shade trees will not
control leaf disease. On the contrary, Mr. Graham Anderson informs me that
he has seen worse leaf disease under a dense covering of bad shade trees
than he has in the open, and he also informs me that, though shade is the
backbone of our success in Mysore, he has had more misfortune from all
causes when his estate was under the heavy shade of bad caste trees than
he has ever had since, though many places are not yet properly covered
with the good kind of shade trees which he had planted to take the place
of the bad ones he had removed. I am much indebted to Mr. Graham Anderson
for information on the subject of leaf disease