it, nor, I am sure, had any of
my neighbours. A trick, however, I once played on Mr. Graham Anderson's
cousin about thirty years ago, enables me to trace it backwards so far
with certainty. On coming through his plantation on one occasion, I picked
oft a very large yellow coffee leaf, and placed it below the first of
several plates with the aid of which he was helping his visitors. When the
servant lifted the first plate, there was the leaf, and I said to my
friend, "There are your golden prospects." Many years afterwards Mr.
Graham Anderson recalled the incident to my memory, and said, "That was
the leaf disease." But it was not till leaf disease appeared in Ceylon in
a severe form that our attention was called to the subject, and since then
leaf disease has undoubtedly increased, and, in the opinion of one of the
two experienced planters I have consulted, has caused much loss directly
and indirectly, while the other informs me it has caused much loss on some
estates. But I confess my own observation causes great doubts in my own
mind as to whether the losses of leaves which planters attribute to leaf
disease are entirely owing to that cause, and I was much struck with what
Mr. Reilly, of Hillgrove Estate, Coonoor, said to me on the subject; and
when we were discussing leaf disease in general, he observed that it was
often said to be the cause of leaves falling off, when their doing so was
really owing to an over heavy crop of coffee. Then with our dry east winds
many leaves become yellow and fall off, and some become so because they
have been injured by the pickers, others from rot, and others from old
age, and all these leaf losses are commonly put down to leaf disease, so
that, taking all these points into consideration, I find myself quite
unable to determine, even approximately, the amount of loss arising from
_Hemeleia Vastatrix_.

But of one thing, however, I do feel absolutely certain, and that is, that
when the land is well cultivated, manured, and judiciously shaded with
good caste trees, leaf disease may be reduced to such a degree that we
need not trouble ourselves about it, and I feel equally sure that the most
important of all the agents for controlling and limiting the disease is
the shade of good caste trees. And as to the effect of shade upon
_Hemeleia Vastatrix_, I made particular inquiries when visiting estates in
1891 on the slopes of the Nilgiris, and conversing with planters on the
subject. One man