Ave. ^, i^S6A 



THE f^O^lCAL AG^iCULtURlSf, 



iai 



KILLING SCALE BUGS IN FLOllIDA. 



The method adopted by one Florida oraugc grower 

 to rid his trees of scale bugs will undoubtedly in- 

 terest some of our own people, and we suggest that 

 the jilau looks reasonable and might be profitably 

 tried in sections where black scale exist. A writer 

 in the Florida Ayricv.lturist describes the process as 

 follows : — 



"A successful farmer and orchardist from M'isoonsin, 

 has A thousand young orange trees in Florida, not 

 yet in bearing, which for years bad been the scaliest 

 trees I have ever seen. He was much perplexed, 

 but not the man to give up the fight discouraged. 

 He remembered that in early life he had fought 

 insects successfully by throwing dry ashes over his 

 fruit trees early in the morning when the dew was 

 on, Ic occurred to him that soap might do good. 

 He bought a box of common bar-soap, and cut it 

 into oblong pieces the size of one's thumb, but not 

 quite so thick, and stuck four or five on thorns, well 

 up in each tree. 



'•"When he returned in tlie fall, he found every 

 tree clean and thrifty, except ;i very few from which 

 the soap had been taken or got off. These latter was 

 as scaly and scrawny as before. On most of the 

 trees there were small remains of the .soap still on 

 the thorns, and on all the white coating that had 

 been dissolved and washed down over the bark. Each 

 spring since, before going north, he has applied the 

 soap, always with the same happy results. 



•' I will add that his trees came out of the January 

 freeze better than the average. Nothing lowers the 

 vitality of an oiange tree like scale in any and all 

 of its half dozen forms. Nothing is ea.sier killed in 

 its earlier life, but most difficult when fixed on the 

 bark, encased in its coat of mail of gum, which nothing 

 seems able to dissolve or penetrate. Perhaps alco- 

 hol or naphtha might do it. 



" The young scale (long scale for e.xample) just 

 hatched walks over the bark about four days, a tiny 

 insect, so small and delicate as to be visible only to 

 the keenest naked eyes. In this period of activity 

 she mates, and is then ready to settle down for the 

 balance of her brief life. She then inserts the beak 

 of her head into the bark, and nestles down snugly. 

 Her legs being of no further use soon fall off ; gum 

 exudes and enclos's her completely, except a pair of 

 breathing holes in her sides. Tfeus secure, she lives 

 on the juices of the tree, and completes her life 

 work of producing some 30 eggs for the continuance 

 and maltiplicatiou of her species. 



"A probable explanation of this soap remedy is 

 that it is operatin.; during the whole scale season. 

 The dews and r.iins slowly dissolve and carry down 

 the soap over the branches and trunk, and the in- 

 sect thus finds its bane and perishes before it can 

 settle down to its destructive work." — Rural Californian. 



THE PUSHING OF INDIAN TEA. 



The pusbing of Indian tea is one of such para- 

 mount importance-, that this must form the excuse 

 for so soon again referriiig to it. Intrinsic merit 

 sooner or later brings anything to the front, whether 

 it is merchandise or brains. InrJian tea up to date 

 has achieved nil its success through its intrinsic 

 merit ; it has been very little helped by advertising 

 or puffing. Had Indian tea not been intrinsically 

 good, it would h;ive disappeared from public view. 

 Annually there is a marked increase in the quantity 

 consumed by the public, principally in Great Britain 

 and Ireland. Had Indian tea been pushed in the 

 same way as Ceyons have been, instead of an annual 

 consumption of 6'i millions, we should have had no 

 stocks left at all now, and Indian tea would have 

 been in a better ,'tatistical position than it now is. 

 As it is with exchange so uncertain Banks are un- 

 willing to do business except at ruinous rates, so 

 that some means should be taken to avert calamity. 

 It is significant that in the vicinity of great centres 

 of popuUtiou iu Britair), for iustaacc All round Loudoo; 

 Ji3 



almost no pure Indian tea is to be met with, whilst 

 Ceylon and occasionally Darjeeling teas (pure), can 

 readily be bought. "Wherever one goes Ceylon teas 

 stare one in the face, done up in neat little packets 

 of ^Ib. and lib. At first the natural conclusion that 

 one comes to is that the Ceylon planter has sprung 

 a mine upon his Indian brother, is sending home the 

 tea done up thu.*; but upon enquiry it turns out 

 that the manipulation is effected in London, by the 

 agents prior to delivery to the country dealer, show- 

 ing how extremely careful the Ceylon agency houses 

 are to place their wares before the public in a taking 

 way. Nice little lead packages neatly done up with 

 a taking label are infinitely more likely to attract 

 attention than a great huge unwieldly chest roughly 

 made. China teas are also got up in neat little pack- 

 ages, quite ornamental, and the tea dealer is proud 

 to put them in his window, but when one does come 

 across, or, rather ask to see the original case of any 

 Indian tea, he finds it con.signed to the background 

 altogether, simply on account of its appearance. Of 

 course put up in an attractive form tea thus must 

 cost a little more, but looking at the enhanced values 

 that Ceylons obtain, we doubt if it does not do far 

 more than pay. With many gardens it is not a ques- 

 tion of paying but of existence, and we consider that 

 it is worth the while of some estates to do up their 

 teas in this fasliiou so as to make them more attrac- 

 tive. Doing the teas up even in, say, five-pound 

 packages with the " Tanbcrry " patent cloth on paper 

 would be a step in the right direction. We under- 

 stand that the cost is very much less than tea-lead, 

 and the weight for carriage is also much less. In 

 addition the facilities for putting on a nice label are 

 very much greater, and the paper would show off 

 a label much bette.-. The " heathen Chinee " takes 

 care to cover his box with all sorts of heiroglyphics, 

 which although perfectly unintelligible to the outside 

 public, form an attraction, and no doubt even now 

 assist to carry off the wares. The British public in 

 this age of rapid progression are not easily satisfied, 

 and competition is so great th;it Indian planters and 

 agents must put Indian Tea before the public in a 

 more presentable form. .V few years ago it was 

 supposed that the merit of the liquor of Indian tea 

 had to a great extent done away with the neces.sity 

 for paying so much attention to the appearance of 

 the leaf. It is questionable if this so now. A large 

 quantity of Indians is now bought from appearance, 

 owing no doubt to the extraordinarily large amount 

 of sampling, which falls to be done from the very 

 large increase in imports. The genernlity of Indians 

 are too leafy and large, and the dealers complain 

 that the teas are too large in leaf to sell by them- 

 selves and that it necessitates a blend with China 

 in order to make them a good marketable com- 

 modity. Another thing that strikes one with regard 

 to Indian tea is the general complaint that it is not 

 to be bought. What is called Indian is only a blsnd. 

 In the case of Ceylon tea each little ^b. package 

 is labelled and guaranteed. — Imliau rinntei':^'' Ga:.ette. 



THE INDIAN AND COLONIAL EXHIBITION 

 AT SOUTH KENSINGTON. 



Next in order to the Jfauritius Court in the Eastern 

 Arcade may be noticed the exhibits of the straits 

 ■'Settle menU. 



An article which deserves a brief notice is cofter- 

 tea. It appears that the IMalays do not use the 

 coflree berry, but prefer the leaves, giving as a reason 

 that they "contain a larger ((uantity of the bitter 

 principle and are more nutritious. The mod^ in which 

 they prepare the leaves for use is as follows: — A 

 number of young leafy twigs are gathered and broken 

 into lengths of about" 12 or 18 inches. These are 

 obtained largely from the suckers, which are allowed 

 to grow for that purpose. The twigs are arranged 

 between two strips of bamboo tied at the ends, so 

 as to form a dense disc of green leaves about IS m' 

 30 inches in diameter, the free ends of the bamboo 

 being used as a handle by wbitli to move the Icave.s 



