Ill 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



Ai-RiL 19, 1919. 



fairly wide, and in West At'ii&iu conditions, fairly 

 useful.' 



Mr. Farquharson then goes on to pay a tribute to 

 the late Mr. George Massee's econoinic-niycological 

 outlook, and its inHuence upon his own work. 



In ifturning to the ijuestiou of his varied work in 

 Nigeria, he says: 'my experience here, especially being 

 in a position in which I was more or les.s responsible 

 for getting up crops, or giving a plausible reason for 

 failure, has convinced me that every mycdlogist ought 

 to be deprived of his microscope (and perhaps even of 



(Pyranuis cardul). Next day, and for a few months, 

 they are not. 



'Early in the rains for two or three days 

 thotisands of migrating Libytheine butterflies pass 

 here flying southwards. The negro peasant knows 

 that after that he may safely sow his cereal crops — 

 maize, at any rate. Towards the end of the rains 

 swarms of the s.ime butterflies return noithwards. 

 One may conclude that the rains are over, lietvvcen 

 the flights to and from the forest belt we never see 

 them. Unquestionably some of our insect pests are 

 only pests when the agricultuiist has failed. The 



his pocket lens) for at least the first tour uf his service, agriculturist may not like to be told that. He doesn't; 



and perhaps for two years, and compelled to raise 

 noniKd crops with no artificial aids of any sort. If 

 possible also, he should be compelled to study a really 

 representative half-dozen drainage problems, and see 

 them solved by experts. He would greatly benefit by 

 having to dig a few drains himself. I do not pre- 

 t<nd to be an expei-t, but for the fiist two months of 

 this tour I did dig drains, bits of them, myself, and 

 supervised the digging of an open system, three feet (and 

 ■even over) deep. I had to do this because I diagnosed 

 asphyxiation to account for defoliation and die-back on 

 some of our cacao here. I had a very bad leave last 

 time, and came back here feeling anything but well. 

 But I saw the water pouring out of a clay subsoil as 

 each spadeful of soil came out, and in due course I saw 

 the cacao trees shoot out leaf-buds evei-y where, and that 



w;u« something.' 



He is somewhat sai-castic as to elaborate des- 

 criptions of obscure fungi as being the only cause of 

 plant diseases, and concludes as follows: — 



'I know there are othei- causes of die-back in 

 x^acao and other trees than lack of drainage. I have 



object to be told to spray. There is, a fine "acti 

 of (!od" feeling about it, so fine indeed that he 

 deosn't even spray, but is satisfied with the belief 

 that it might be done with success. T'he notorious 

 West African cacao "bark-sapper" (SalberyeUa sp.) 

 in my experience is a pest on the careless agri- 

 culturist — a deserved visitation. A leading native 

 grower here sent to the Department by one of our 

 native instructors a collection of insect pests that were 

 vexing him. 'J'hey were bark-sappers. In the absence 

 of our entomologist these things come my way (though 

 I get no official credit). I sent the instructor to the 

 plantation with a list of questions to answer as to the 

 contour of the farm, t-oil and subsoil, whether the pest 

 was worst at the top of any slopes on the farm or at the 

 bottom, and if at the bottom, whether the land was 

 swampy. He came back brniging trees (,with roots) that 

 he'd dug up. Before he said a vord 1 knew from the 

 stunted, gnarled tap-roots that the trees had grown on 

 the most refractory laterite pan. He told me there 

 was but four inches of soil above the laterite, and that 

 the tiees were on the top of a slope. At the bottom, 

 had such problems, but I at n convinced"that all of near water, on rich soil, there wasn't a sapper to be seen, 

 them can and must be solved without the aid of one- I si'nt wonl to the owner that if he really wanted to 

 twelfth-inch obiectives and Bordeaux mixture.' g'ow cacao on such a place h./d have to dig big holea 



and deep, and fill them up with compost. He would 



Mr. Farquharson is then somewhat sarcastic on the )^,nj\v himself from his normal profit margin, whether 



subject of what he calls 'entomogenous fungus ^^^ expense would justify that method, or whether it 



boosters", and says that Mr Massee thoroughly shat. would be better to recognize that laterite was no soil 



for cacao. When next I heard of him he had read my 

 report in a meeting of the Agricultural Society of 



tered his faith in them because he is (piite convinced 

 that very often no attempt is made to find out whin a, 

 ooGcid or any other insect) dies a, natural death not to 

 be attributed to carnivorous fungi. He finishes his 

 remarks by saying : '( )ur mycological bug-slayers over- 

 look the normal seasonal periodicity of insects, and it 

 speros to me that not a few have sprayed their fungus 



Ibadan, and denounced my remedy (and me) as imprac- 

 ticable. 



'I noticed some time ago in a list of various 

 non-cacao host plants of the bark-sapper, which 



spores just when the insect w.as about to go anyhow, ought not to be planted near cacao plantations 



The 8oa.sonal p.riodicity of insects is extremely well (including Acalypha hfedges), that mention is made 



marked here. One day going from my office to my that though Salbergella is a parasite of Acalypha. 



tiuaiters I probably see dozens of "Painted Ladies" which is a hedge at^ Aburi, yet the cacao there 



