6 à THE ‘BROWN SCALE," 
weather. What effect a continuance of- drought would produce 
on the insect, it is impossible to say, as during the last two years there 
has scarcely been any dry weather in the Central Province ; and this 
continued moist state of both atmosphere and soil, I am inclined 
io believe, has had much to do with the prevalence of the epidemic. 
As the present season promises to be a dry one, it may perhaps 
partially check its progress to some extent. : 
Whatever may have been the origin of the Coccus, it is certain that, 
having once appeared, the rapidity with which it multiplies, and the 
immense number of eggs that each Scale produces, will sufficiently 
_ account for the speed with which it extends. As the females do not 
possess wings, it is quite impossible that they can spread from tree to 
iree by flight. By means of their legs, however, they possess excellent 
powers of locomotion ; and as at the opening of each Scale, to give 
. egress to the young that have been hatched within it, hundreds of them 
must, necessarily fall to the ground, many will, of course, take posses- 
sion of adjoining trees. . This seems to be the way in which the pest 
radiates from a centre to a cireumference in those localities where it 
first appears on estates. 
As regards its transmission from one place to another, there are many 
means by which it may be effected. Thus, any one passing an infected 
tree will be sure to carry away hundreds of the minute young, 
unknown to himself, as they are all but imperceptible to the naked eye; 
and I should say that Coolies going from one estate to another, have done 
more to diffuse the plague than anything else. The same end has, no 
doubt, also been accomplished by birds and large insects. In some of the 
estates that I have visited, the disease has first been noticed near 
the Coolie lines ; and where it has broken out in single patches, in the 
middle of estates, far from roads, birds have most likely conveyed 
the seeds. That the spread of the pest from west to east has been 
effected by transmission of the young females from place to place, is, I 
think, very probable. 
— Numerous are the remedies that have been employed to check 
the progress of the blight, but none of them have had the desired 
effect. Thus, upon the Lapallagalla estate, applications of chloride of 
lime, lime-water, urine, and manuring with guano, have been tried, 
and found useless. Cutting down the trees and close-pruning them 
were also had recourse to in vain, the young shoots immediately 
becoming as bad as ever. 
