July i, 1SS5.3 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



63 



The farmer and the gardener have to fight innumer- 

 able noxious weeds that have beeu imported from various 

 countries without the natural enemies that keep them in 

 cheek in their owu countries. Some, perhaps all, have 

 their redeeming qualities, but when they get mixed up 

 with the farmers' crops or the gardeners' grasses they 

 destroy the average product of the field in which they 

 grow to just the extent that they cover and rob it. 

 "Whether the " takeall " fungus was imported or not we 

 cannot say, but it most probably found an entrance by 

 way of one of our ports. However, it is idle to speculate 

 whether this and red rust came that way or not. We 

 know that the list of introduced noxious weeds is very 

 numerous, and that it is increasing very rapidly. We 

 have had scale insects innumerable introduced on various 

 plants; we kuow of, certain snails that were let loose 

 purposely by a man who brought them from England, 

 and now they are a great nuisance. A number of speci- 

 mens of ajjhis have been brought here, and the phyllo- 

 xera ajjhis is waiting just outside our doors, hariug 

 been brought from France to Geelong, and our jammakers 

 and even our nurserymen are importing fruit and fruit- 

 trees in quantities from Geelong, quite careless whether 

 or not they introduce it to our vineyards. It is well 

 known that the Codlin moth has caused the loss of mil- 

 Uous of pounds to orchard-owners in America and in Tas- 

 mania, as well as many other places, and yet we are tak- 

 ing absolutely no steps to prevent the importation of 

 fruit and fruit-trees from those countries, or even to in- 

 spect and disinfect the boxes or trees upon landing. 



The apple blight is rampant in our orchards, and no 

 one can even estimate what its introduction has cost the 

 colony. The patato moth (Leda soladinella) eats tons of 

 potatoes occasionally, and causes the rest to rot whole- 

 sale ; we have the curculio beetle, also imported from the 

 Mediterranean, whenee we get the stinkwort (Imda grave- 

 oleus), and a few more pests; and we might enumerate 

 a number of borers, coccida^, sawiiies, slugs, beetles, &c., 

 but we have said enough to prove that the enemies 

 against which our cultivators have to contend are neither 

 few in number nor mean in power to hurt them. 



The question is, can they successfully cope with their 

 enemies 'i We say most decidely they can in some cases, 

 and could in others if they knew more about them and 

 with what weapons to resist their attacks. They want a 

 good practical knowledge of their enemies in all stages 

 and particularly of these periods in their life history 

 when they are weakest and most defenceless, and then 

 they want unanimity of purpose. Thus the locusts iu 

 Russia. Syria, and other places used to descend upon the 

 country in thousands of tons and eat every green herb, 

 causing famines and deaths to thousands of human be- 

 ings. It would be useless to attempt to destroy them 

 at this time, but the armies of the different Governments 

 w-ere sent out when the locusts had just emerged from 

 their egg-cases in the soil, and, besidft, exery soul that 

 could work icaj impressed into the duty, so that before they 

 were able to fly the whole lot were killed, and thus a 

 catastrophe was prevented. How often do we liear from 

 our country correspondents that -'the whole place is 

 alive with young grasshoppers, and fears are entertained 

 that the crops will suffer by and by." or " that the 

 grubs or the caterpillars are crawling in procession over 

 the newly sown wheatfields, clearing them as they go." 

 Surely the whole neighbourhood should turn out in such 

 cases as these and by means of landroUers, or even of 

 masses of bushes drawn across the living masses of soft ! 

 defenceless locusts or grubs, they could kill them whole- 

 sale, and, by preventing them coming to maturity would 

 stop an indefinite multiplication of these pests. 



I^pon the subject of education into the origin and de- 

 slructiveness of such pests the circular goes on to say and 

 wisely too, "Everything concerning insects injurious or 

 beneficial is taught in all the schools on the Continent, 

 and particularly in Germany where beautifully prepared 

 specimens and plates of the insects, their larv;e, their 

 eggs, and the work done by each are illustrated. Great 

 attempts arc being made in England to establish a similar 

 pi-ictice, and Miss Eleanor A. Ormerod, whose work is 

 often referred to iu the proceedings of our Koyal Agri- \ 

 cultural Society, has done very much towards dissemin- 

 atiu 8 a knowledge of iti^ecta injurious and beneficial to j 



cultivators, besides enlisting the sj-mpathies and the assist- 

 ance of numbers of cultivators. But it is in America 

 that the greatest attention has been paid to farm and 

 garden pests, and the funds of the States have been 

 expended with no parsimonious hand in endeavouring to 

 find out all about the farm aud orchard pests as well as 

 to devise means for their extirpation. We cannot hope 

 that an Australian Government will establish any such 

 complete organization as exists iu the American States 

 but a great deal might be done to gather particulars aud 

 disseminate information concerning insect and fungoid 

 pests with a very small expenditure of money. Those 

 who have had the opportunity of inspecting the two cases 

 of insects prepared by Mr P. S. Grawford, and jjlaced 

 in the room of the Royal Agricultural Society, can easily 

 see how valuable aud instructive a work could be done 

 by only one person during each year were his whole 

 attention put into the work. When once an institution 

 for examination into the character of insects and fungi 

 affecting agriculture has been established, there will arise 

 hundreds of willing workers, who will send in specimens 

 observe their habits in situ, and try experiments either 

 under direction or voluntarily, and comnmnicate every 

 particular to the central authority, liy these means a 

 great deal of valuable information would soon be got to- 

 gether, and doubtless simple and inexi^ensive means for 

 combating the various enemies to cultivation would be 

 devised.** 



In conclusion, although we have not said half of what 

 could be urged iu the interests of the various cultural 

 industries, we may point out that in the public Museum 

 there is already the room where the centre of operations 

 could be located; aud as the Museum already employs 

 a collector iu the entomological department and also a 

 highly skilled preparateur, there would only bs needed a 

 small additional expenditure for cases, &c., iu which to 

 exhibit the specimens. The Director, or other officers 

 would find no difiiculty in publishing all information con- 

 cerning his department, for each newspaper in the eolouy 

 would only be too pleased to convey information for the 

 benefit of those important classes— the cultivator of the 

 soil and breeders of live stock. 



It is sincerely to be hoped the Government of South 

 Australia will not hesitate in incurring the exijenditure 

 necessary to ensure a prompt and searching investigation 

 into the origin and best means of eradicating all pests 

 above and under the soil from which agriculturists of all 

 kinds have suffered aud will continue to suffer still more 

 severely if not to a disastrous extent, unless provision for 



their discovery and total eradication be made in time. 



Agriculturist and Jieview. 



AMERICAN EXPERIMENTS ON ORANGE SCALE. 



Equally with the orange growers of Australia, those of 

 southern California, and the southern states of America, 

 especially Florida, are frequently subjected to losses through 

 the ravages of the orange scale insect, aud much attention 

 has been devoted by the central Department of Agriculture 

 in the way of experiments having for their object the 

 finding of an effective remedy for the plague. The latest 

 experiments that have taken place in Florida form the 

 subject of a report submitted to tlie Commissioner of 

 Agriculture at Washington. Mr. Geo. B. Loring, who for- 

 wards us a copy, and from it we gather that the greatest 

 amount of success has been obtained by the use of 

 emulsions composed of 67 per cent, of kerosene anil 33 

 per cent, of soap aud water. The experiments with 

 kerosene enuilsious have proved that various soaps can be 

 readily made to combine with the oil, and that the soap 

 and kerosene emulsions are as effective a.s' those formed 

 with milk. The use of soap materially reduces the cost, 

 except whitre milk is abundant as cheap, as is very 

 seldom the ease iu Florida. Common bar soap, soft soaji, 

 and whale oil soap have been tried and found to do 

 almost equally good, ^^'hale oil soap, when of good 

 quality, is jjreferred, as it is stronger, and adils to the 

 insecticidal properties of the emulsion. The following 

 formula is one which has proved in practice useful where 

 a moderate quantity of emulsion is required, and is said 

 to gii'c a wash of suflicieut strength to kill the eggs of 

 the iicalc insects commonly fouud in Tlorida; Iseroseng 



