M 



Tm fnopiCAL AGmcuLTVRm\ 



[Auo, -^t 1886. 



INSECTS ON THE MANGO TKEE. 



Tattovancotty, Tallai, 11th June 1SS(;_ 



Deak Sii;, — I enclose in a nuiteh-box sonic leaves 

 from a young luungo-lree willi whal I believe to Jbc 

 the nest of Bome insects. I shall be obliged by 

 yonr kindly ascertaining for me the cause ; and, 

 if injurious, what remedy should be used. 



In a back number of the T. A., a correspondent 

 mentioned that the leaves of the kokuna, if put 

 in a barrel and placed about a coconut plant- 

 ation, \vould attract and kill beetles. What is the 

 Tamil name for this plant.*— Yours faithfully, 



FEEDK. MORTIMEU. 



[Our entomological friend tells us : — " The excres- 

 cences are galls produced by the punctures made 

 by some minute hymenopterous insect with its 

 ovipositor in laying its eggs. The larva hatched 

 Irom the eggs, icsidc in and feed on the galls, 

 which increase in siae with the growth of the 

 larva — when the latter have arrived at the perfect 

 state, they bite small circular holes through 

 the substance of the gall, and make their escape. 

 They do little or no harm." — Ed.] 



THE "TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST" AND 

 PLANTING IN SOUTHERN INDIA. 

 Naduvatum, Neilgherries, 15th June 1886. 

 To till Editor of the " Tropical Agriculturist." 



Sir, — May I take the liberty to suggest that your 

 Valuable periodical would be still more useful to all 

 Indian tea planters if you could see your way to 

 add a couple of pages devoted to the account sales 

 of Indian tea in London. I am sure the Indian 

 subscribers, at least, would gladly pay an enhanced 

 subscription for this extra. For the sake of 

 obtaining this information I had intended sub- 

 scribing to the Indian Tea Gazette but when I 

 summed up the amount of information contained 

 in a si^ecimen copy, it seemed to me that I would 

 be fain to comfort myself somewhat after the fashion 

 Mr. Spurgeon recommends with regard to poor 

 sermons when he remarked : '• Though there is not 

 much in the sermon you always have the text." 

 (For '• text " read " statistics "). However I thought 

 better of that investment ! 



Perhaps you may be interested to hear of the 

 outturn from a coffee estate in these parts which 

 in spite of drought, leaf-disease i^'c, S:c., gives its 

 20 cwt. per acre ! The secret lies chiefly injudicious 

 irrigation about blossom time. The cattle-manure, 

 when applied, is not left to rot on the roots of the 

 coffee bushes and thereby bring on a heavy dose of 

 leaf-disease, but the " tap " is immediately turned 

 on and very soon the manui'e is transmuted into a 

 rich, but harmless, :aould. The coffee bushes on 

 this estate are never pruned, so that the bushes 

 (or rather trees) have never been abnormally forced. 



I trust to forward you copies of a rather volumin- 

 ous correspondence with the Director of Agriculture 

 at Madras, as aoon as I can find the leisure. — Yours 

 faithfully, _ NOVICE. 



P. S. — A tremendous gale of wind here for the 

 last forty-eight hours. Rainfall yesterday -5 inches. 



June ioth. - The future lies with those planters 

 who have had sufficient foresight to reserve a large 

 Bfea for grazing purposes. In many districts 

 planters are obliged to resort to stall-feeding. On 

 the western slopes of these hills the pasturage is 

 tmcilaalled in quality in the whole of India and 

 the "area is ample. A correspondent writes of 

 miserable crops of coffee this season in Wynaad 

 and is of opinion that cinchona will eventually 



* "Caiarium Z?yhiiiicim" is the botanical name 

 but we on find uo Tamil name. The Tatuil uaujo of 

 C. strclutu is Kowjiluiii, wu/-«//{.— Ed, 



be barked only once in two years in the Wynaad 



district. 



L Would it meet our correspondent's views if we 

 gave the tea sales for Southern India, that is the 

 Neilgherries estates, in the T, A. ? Our South of India 

 subscribers are numerous enough to claim this 

 attention, but those in the North arc, so far, a 

 limited constituency. — Ed.] 



ENEMIES OF THE COCONUT PALM:— No. I. 



Pallai, 17th June 188(). 



Dkak Sin, — In the accompanying match-box I 

 send you a beetle which has lately been com- 

 mitting a considerable amount of havoc amongst my 

 young coconut plants, just two-and-a-half years old. 

 Its mode of attack is to bore through the outer 

 covering of mature leaves just below the surface 

 of the soil, and to regale itself on the tender, 

 undeveloped leaflets inside. The specimen sent you 

 was extracted from a plant this morning, by means 

 of a penknife, while it was busily engaged in its 

 work of destruction. 



Can you let me know whether it is the genuine 

 " black-beetle " the huruminiya (small specimen) of 

 the Sinhalese or an entirely new enemy of the coco- 

 nut plant ? I have hitherto been under the im- 

 pression that the kurnminiija was a much larger 

 beetle than the one under review, and that, more- 

 over, it was provided with a pair of formidable 

 forceps to enable it to penetrate the tough outer 

 coating which envelopes the heart of the coconut. 

 The only weapon of destruction which the accom- 

 panying "varmint" appears to jjossess is the horn 

 on the top of its head, which gains for him the 

 familiar name (and the only one by which I have 

 known him) of the " rhinoceros beetle." 



If he really is the kuruminiya, could you or any 

 of your readers kindly suggest a ready and effect- 

 ual lueans of combating his attacks ? I have been 

 thinking of trying kerosene oil, but I see a writer 

 in your compilation — "All about Coconuts," declares 

 it to be quite useless in preventing the ravages of 

 the " black-beetle." Y'ours faithfully, 



COCONUT PLANTER. 



No. II. 



Pallai, 21st June 1880. 



Dear Sir, — Will your entomological referee kindly 

 oblige me with the names of the grub and beetle 

 contained in the accompanying parcel, and also 

 tell me whether they belong to the same, or to 

 two distinct species ? In other words ; docs the 

 grub develop into the beetle ? One would suppose 

 so, as they are generally found together, nearly 

 every decayed coconut stem containing from fifty 

 to a hundred of the former, and one or two of 

 the latter. 



The beetle is of the same kind as the one sent 

 you by me the other day, and which I mentioned 

 as being so destructive to my young coconut plants. 

 If they are allied to the grubs which are found in 

 such large numbers, it is high time a war of 

 extermination were carried out against the latter 

 pest. Trusting the parcel will reach you safely, I 

 am, yours faith'ully, 



COCONUT PLANTER. 



'Our entomological authority states 



The two 



beetles referred to in " Coconut Planter's" letters of the 

 17th and 21st instant are rhinoceros beetles, belong- 

 ing to the family Dynastidn', and the large white 

 grub is the insect in its larva state. This beetle 

 is the Kuruminiya of the Sinhalese. It docs immense 

 damage to coconut plants and trees. The natives 

 extract them Irom the trees by pushing down a 

 long wire rod barbed or hooked at the end, which 

 translises the insect and aduiitt; of ita being drawn 

 out of its hole."— lii^.j 



