West Indies, 469 



** These animals, when they assail us in moderate numbers, 

 act only as a stimulus, wisely sent to rouse the inattentive 

 planter to cleaner and more careful modes of husbandry. 

 When they swarm so as to deprive him of his crops, the loss 

 must in futui*e be attributed either to his obstinacy or his 

 negligence. 



" It is well known that the sheathing leaves of the cane 

 hold for a long period the water which has been collected in 

 them during rains ; from which, in dry weather, the plant 

 may doubtless derive nourishment. In the drier islands, the 

 planter will probably object to the only plan which seems 

 capable of lessening the number of his foes, under the idea 

 that he will expose the plants too much to the merciless rays 

 of the sun. I do not by any means recommend that a single 

 living leaf should be taken off; and a very slight examination 

 will convince him that those which have begun to wither are 

 incapable of holding water for the refreshment of the cane. 



" The borers are observed to be much more fatal to plant 

 than to ratoon canes, which should, of course, be oftener 

 visited by the parties of negroes whose business it is to col- 

 lect the trash. A single cane will sometimes nourish several 

 of the borer worms, which perforate every joint; when the 

 pithy centre, becoming discoloured and sour, not only yields 

 nothing at the mill, but communicates a dark colour and bad 

 quality to the sirop of the sounder plants. 



" Of the other enemies of the sugar-cane, I can for the^ 

 present speak but slightly. The large fire-fly (E^later nocti- 

 lucus) has been said, but perhaps only accidentally, to have 

 been bred in it. An undetermined aphis, and the ' jumper 

 fly,' probably one of the Chrysomelidae, have in some islands 

 proved injurious, but have never been noticed here. The 

 myriads of ants which once infested, but have now disap- 

 peared from, Grenada, committed, indeed, the most frightful 

 ravages ; but it was rather by excavating their little metro- 

 polis beneath the roots, than by attacking the body of the 

 cane. Were these little carnivorous agents less prolific than 

 they are, we might encourage them as useful helpmates in the 

 destruction of the borers, which they pursue and kill in their 

 cylindrical labyrinths." (Trans, Soc, Arts, vol. xlvi. p. ]53.) 



Kirby and Spence, in enumerating the " benefits derived 

 from insects," in their Introduction to E7itomology, vol. i. 

 p. 298., thus remark : — " Many larvae that belong to the 

 order Coleoptera are eaten in different parts of the world. 

 The grub of the palm weevil [Calandra palmarum) [j%.95.^], 

 which is the size of the thumb, has been long in request in 

 both Indies, ^lian speaks iHist,, 1. xiv. c. 13.] of an Indian^ 



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