34^ 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Nov. I, 1886. 



ignores two importaut facts: firstly, that parasite 

 breed most rapidly ; and, secondly, that myriads make 

 up for want iu individual side. Mr. Roth telLs us 

 that a .species of Hoplosternus is the commou chafer 

 ol (^Lieenslaud. Its grub destroys the roots of the 

 cane, causing the leaves to become brown and dry 

 up; the growth of the cane is then arrested, and 

 the first high wind knocks it over. Iu this manner 

 whole fields of cane are killed. In the early stage 

 the larvre are occupied iu gnawing the roots. Iu 

 November and December the chafers, fully developed, 

 appear above ground iu swarms, inactive during the 

 day but feeding eiig.'rly at night. An ant, the Fonnica 

 saceharlvora, is supposed to get at the sweet juices 

 of the plant aud injure it. Another insect, the waxy 

 sugar-cane louse, is known to the Mauritius and Bourbon 

 planters as Le Tou a Poche Blanche. It is the icerya 

 sacchari, aud occurs also iu Queenslaud, and Mr. 

 lloth supposes that it is milked by a small black ant, 

 Formica rufo-nigra, iu the same manner as ipecies 

 of aphides are by other ants. He considers the 

 Pou to be a cause of very great injury to the cane. 

 The cane has its enemies in other countries. The 

 sugar-cane beetle of the Unite i States is the Ligyrus 

 ruficeps, Le C. It is a stout black beetle, half an 

 inch loug, which bores into the stock ofj the sugir- 

 cane under ground. 



Sugar-cane ravages iu Grenada are caused by the 

 cane-spittle tly, Delphax sacchai'vora ; iu Natal by 

 the cine smut, Ustilago sacchari, a disease, analogous 

 to the smut of wheat aud maize ; in the Mauritius 

 by the Proceras sacchariphagus, which Mr. A\'estwood 

 has supposed may be indeutical with the Diatr;ea 

 sacchari ; G adding, and Phaheua sacchari, Faliricius. 

 The Borer of the Queensland planters has been supposed 

 to be the larva of this Diatr;ei sacchari. It enters 

 the cane above ground and eats up the heart. It is 

 supposed to be indeutical with the Borer of the 

 Mauritius, the Proceras sacchariphagus. The wire- 

 worm, larvas of the chick beetle, are found at the 

 roots of the Qaeeuslaud cane, but no damage from 

 theui has been detected. 



IMany suggestions hive been made for the destruc- 

 tion of these and other insect pests. In this country 

 Miss Ormerod is devoting herself, to the investigation 

 of the field, aud garden, and forest enemies of the 

 vegetable kiugdam, and has suggested several means 

 for preventing or lessening the sgverity of their 

 attacks. It has lately been s lid that many insect 

 marauders are killed or scaied away b.y_ a kerosine 

 emulsion ; a gallon of kerosine is mixed wrfch-three 

 pints of water and a pint an 1 a half of milk, and 

 churned into a butterine consistence. This is diluted 

 with twelve or sixteen times its weight of water, aud 

 has to be at once applied, because the component 

 parts separate if allowed to stand. W. Bancroft 

 writing in 1878, mentioned that he had with advantage 

 sown the Dolichos labial and Cajauus ludicus pulse 

 among the sugar-cane fields, with the object of 

 attracting the Ichneumon flies which destroy the 

 cane louse. On lauds which are cultivated on the 

 rotation system all parasites have to seek fresh 

 feeding-grourd once a twelvemonth or oftener, aud 

 are thus kept away for a considerable period, or left 

 to die iu the absence of their special food. Aud 

 the protection of insectivorous birds a:id bats has 

 been reoommended, with the hope of keeping down 

 the pests by their means. The snuit and rust, aud 

 yellow blast aud black blast are planters' names for 

 diseases of the caue which ueed scientific iuvestigatiou. 

 —Overland Mail, 



The Indian Government Quinine factory sold, in 

 ten years, something like 75,233 lb, of the druj^. 

 In other words, supposing that each patient took 

 20 grains— sufficient in most cases to greatly 

 incommode all but the most hardened users — very 

 nearly 22 millions of lever-smitten people had 

 reason to ])less an " oppressive and tyrannical 

 luieaucracy." — 31. Mailt 



NOTES ON BAMBOOS* 



]?AMnoos may be propagated either by planting out 

 sets from existing clumps, or by sowing seed. If sets 

 are used they should be taken from vigorous two or 

 three year old shoots with their rhizomes, and trans- 

 ferred with soil about the roots to the pit in which 

 the bamboo is to grow. The stem should be cut back 

 above a joint at about 5 feet, aud the set planted 

 about 8 or 10 inches deep in the early rains, and 

 as quickly as possible after removal from the parent 

 clump. The new shoots will then be thrown up from 

 the eyes, and, all things being favourable, bamboos fit 

 for sale will be produced on good soil iu about six 

 or seven years. The stem may be removed and the 

 set laid flat under the soil, as is douo with sugar- 

 cane sets. This method has given good results, but 

 the sets were regularly watered from a well. 



If seed is used, it should be put down in worked 

 earth, juit below the surface, and should be lightly 

 watered. It will throw up a shoot like grass, from 

 the eyes of which new shoots will be thrown up during 

 the first year. Iu the second year, other and larger 

 shoots will be thrown up, and so on, each year's shoots 

 being larger in girth and taller than those of the 

 preceding year until the full size of the culm of the 

 kind of bamboo is attained. With suthcient rainfall, 

 and iu a good but not too moist a soil, bamboos fit 

 for sale may be cut in from about seven to ten years. 

 On poor dry land, or on sandy soils, the period may 

 extend to twelve years or more. The seed used should 

 be not more than a year old, aud should be sown 

 very sparsely in the bed. 



The first shoot that comes up from a seed never 

 grows into a bamboo. As already explained, the eyes 

 throw up shoots which develope into stems. Each 

 stem comes up as large in girth as it ever will be. 

 It first appears as a scaly cone covered with sheaths. 

 It then rapidly attains its full height, when the leaf 

 sheaths at its nodes either diminish in size or gradually 

 fall oif aud give place to leaves ; the stem branches 

 OM its upper half, and on completion of the branching 

 is matured. It does not grow any taller or stouter, 

 nor does it solidify or fill up inside year by year, 

 but stands iu the clump till it diies off and dies in 

 from twelve to fifteen years. Each stem matures under 

 ordinary circumstances in about twelve months. A 

 clump of bamboos of, .saj', twelve years of age is 

 thus a collection of stems from one to twelve years 

 of age aud of different sizes, the variety of size being 

 caused not by the annual increase of the older stems, 

 or of any individual stem, but by the fact that each 

 annual crop of shoots produces stems of greater diameter 

 and height than those of the preceding year until 

 the limit of the normal size of the species in both 

 height and girth is reached. That limit may be reached 

 in very favourable circumstauces iu five years, a shoot 

 of that year coming up, perhaps, two or more inches 

 in diameter in the first heavy rains, and rising by 

 October to 40 or 50 feet in height. The new shoot 

 not being branched at first is able to make its way 

 through its companions, and, as already said, it begins 

 branching on attaining its full height. All that has 

 lieen now written of the manner of growth applies 

 equally to stems produced from sets or from seed. 

 But a clump produced from seed has its normal period 

 of life before it, whereas a clump from a set has before 

 it only that portion of life period which had not been 

 already spent by the parent clump from which tha 

 set was taken. The hfe of an individual stem is by 

 no means the same as that of the clump to which it 

 belongs. Individual stems dieotf iu from ten to fifteen ' 

 years, while the common life of the clump may extend 

 over from twenty to forty or fifty years. Some species 

 are shorter lived than others, and the duration of 



* The above is taken from a very readable little 

 pamphlet by Colonel van Soraeren, Conservator of 

 Forests, Berar, and obtainable from Messrs. Thacker & 

 Co., Bombay. It consists of papers on Indian Forestry 

 originnlly published in the " Imlian Agriculturi.st " for 

 1881, intende<l by the author to answer, iu a popular 

 manner, the ciuestion " "What do you Forest officers 

 do?"— Ed. /. F. 



