PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

C.O.882

2

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-

COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

8

marked with yellow spots or blotches, these leaves soon afterwards falling prematurely, leaving the branches of the trees quite bare or with only the unripe berries upon them ?

2. Are the spots or blotches on the underside of the affected leaf covered, upon their first appearance, with dust of a pale orange colour easily rubbed off?

3. Do the trees seem to recover altogether from the disease, and then, after a certain period, exhibit all the previous symptoms of being infected by it?

4. When was the disease first observed in

to a particular locality, or was it spread over a large area?

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and was it then confined

5. Has it been observed under what conditions as regards climate, soil, or exposure the disease prevails more or less, and has it shown itself with much greater severity in some years than in others, and have these years been exceptionally wet or dry.

6. Has the disease been found to seriously diminish the amount of crop, and has the

quality of the berries been injuriously affected by it?

7. Have any investigations been made, with the help of the microscope, into the nature of the disease, its mode of propagation, and how it is introduced into the coffee plant, and, if so, what has been the result of these investigations ?

8. Have any other plants besides the coffee been found to be infested with this identical disease, as determined by the miscroscope?

9. Has any particular treatment as regards the manuring or littering of the coffee trees, or the application to them or to the soil in which they are growing of any mineral substances, such as sulphur, been found effective in curing the disease or in mitigating the severity of its periodical attacks?

Sir,

No. 7.

Colonial Office to Dr. Hooker.

Downing Street, November 23, 1874. WITH reference to your letter dated the 6th of August last,* am directed by the Earl of Carnarvon to transmit to you, for any observations you may wish to offer, a copy of a further despatch from the Governor of Ceylon,† respecting the coffee-leaf disease in that island, and I am to state that his Lordship will be prepared to request the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs to send out copies of the queries prepared by Dr. Thwaites if approved by you to Her Majesty's Consuls in coffee growing countries, and that Lord Carnarvon will, at the same time, send a circular to the same effect to the Governors of those Colonies from whom useful information can be derived, asking them to obtain, as far as possible, complete replies to the queries.

Perhaps you will be kind enough to furnish his Lordship with a list of those places to which, in your opinion, it would be desirable to send the circulars.

I am, &c.

(Signed)

R. H. MEADE.

No. 8.

9

The following is a list of places in all, or most, of which I know that coffee is culti- vated on a considerable scale, and to which I would here suggest that the inquiries be sent:--

British Colonies.

Bermuda. Jamaica.

British Honduras.

Turks and Caicos Islandă. British Guiana.

Trinidad.

Barbados.

Grenada.

St. Vincent. St. Lucia. Nevis.

Antigua. Montserrat. Dominica.

Lagos. Gambia.

Sierra Leone. Cape Coast. Elmina. Natal. St. Helena. Penang. Malacca. Singapore.

Mauritius. Queensland.

The Honourable R. H. Mende.

Indian Governments. Bombay Government. Madras Calcutta

"

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Foreign Countries.

Bahia. Pernambuco. Rio. Buenos Ayres. Carthagena. Bogota.

Santa Martha. Costa-Rica. Martinique. Réunion. Cayenne. Guatemala. Greytown.

Hayti. Mazatlan.

Muscat.

Batavia.

Curaços.

Surinam.

Madeira.

Loanda.

Sandwich Isles. Siam. Manilla.

Puerto Rico.

St. Jago de Cuba. Caraccas.

La Guayra. Maracaibo. Zanzibar.

I am, &c. (Signed)

JOS. D. HOOKER, Director.

Sir,

Dr. Hooker to Colonial Office.

Royal Gardens, Kew, December 23, 1874. REFERRING to your letter of the 23rd ultimo,‡ and the documents which accom- panied it, namely, copies of a despatch from Governor Gregory, and of questions respecting the Coffee diseases, suggested by Dr. Thwaites, I have to report—

That Dr. Thwaites proposed questions seem to be explicit, and to the purpose, and that great stress should be laid upon the necessity he points out of specimens of the affected leaves of the plant being sent home in all cases where disease is reported. These leaves should be carefully pressed flat between sheets of paper, and when dry, sent home in this state, also between pieces of paper. Short pieces of the wood with the bark on, or twigs, if these are affected, should be gently dried, and also sent home, carefully wrapped up in soft

paper. All such specimens should be ticketed with any observations as to the age, size, condition, &o, of the plants from which they were taken.

To paragraph 5 of Dr. Thwaites' report I would suggest that the words “month of the year" should be inserted after the word "regard," and the words "hot or cold" be inserted at the end of the same paragraph.

• No. 3.

+ No, 6,

+ No. 7.

FLINTED AT THE FORMAN GFFEOR BY T. WANKISON.-—~20/1/78.

Page 120PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

2

Reference :-

C.O.882

COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE

2 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

CORRESPONDENCE respecting the Coffee-

Leaf Disease in Ceylon.

Colonial Office,

January 1875.

I asrd

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