SEFT2MBER 1, iSSj,] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



2og 



gold, therefore, ought now to send bII prices ex- 

 pressed in gold continuously down, and this is the 

 conclusion to which Mr. Giffen evidently tends ; but 

 he abstains from a final opinion. In his last para- 

 graph he talks of signs that the depression is over ; 

 but his permanent view is evidently e.xpressed in 

 these words :—" We can hardly be sure yet that the 

 causes of the recent change in tlie course of prices have 

 fully worked themselves out. For the present, the 

 tide appears to have turned. Prices all round ore 

 Bomewhat higher than they were at the eud of last 

 year, and the state of the money-market is such that 

 a further rise may be supported without a stringency 

 supervening. But we should still rather expect from 

 period to period a tendency in prices to fall. The 

 annual production of gold, not having incrtased for 

 ten or fifteen years, but having, if anything, slightly 

 diminished and tending still to diminish, is now even 

 less in proportion to the whole stock in use than the 

 annual production was to the stocK in use ten or fifteen 

 years ago. Population and wealth at the same time 

 are increasing at even a greater rate than they did. 

 The permanent tendency seems ne- 

 cessarily downwards. The increase of the means of 

 production, in order to keep the supply of gold pro- 

 portioned to that of commodities, should be at a 

 greater rate and should be proportioned in some way 

 to the mass of gold existing, and not to its annual 

 production. But, in fact, the annual production of 

 gold is maintained with difSculty, while that of all 

 other commodities increases." 



The fall, of course, matters nothing in the long, 

 run to any one. The producer can accept one sovereign 

 a quarter for his wheat just as well as two, when 

 he is paying only one sovereign for rent and wages, 

 instead of two, and he shares with everybody else 

 in the general benefit of cheapness. He does not eat 

 gold, and he gets all the things he wants for less 

 gold than before. But men have imaginations as well 

 as pockets ; contracts, especially leases, run for years, 

 and a reduction of wages, such as is taking place 

 in America and is possibly coming here, involves a 

 great deal of class fighting. There will he a great 

 deal of misery while the process goes on, especially 

 among producers, and a great readiness to believe in 

 quackeries like protective duties and projects frr cur- 

 rency reform. The bimetalliats, who have the ad- 

 vantage of being fanatic, «ill have the liveliest time 

 of it ; and we should not be enrprisen if the new Parlia- 

 ment heard a great d(al about the need for paper 

 currency. Fortunately, the leaders of opinion are 

 tolerably sound economists ; for if it weie not to, 

 most dangerous experiments might even row be tried. 

 We have not forgotten the way in which the cry 

 for " the dollar of our fathers " swept the United 

 States, and have an incurable suspicion that the weak 

 point in Democracy is its resolute ignorance and in- 

 capacity in relation to finance. It will tax itself 

 boldly and EUccessfuUy, that is certain ; but whether 

 it will bear a decline in nominal wages without 

 bursting into fury, we none of us yet kaov/.— Spectator. 



White-ants.— After tho testimohy borne by 

 residents in UdapusseDawa and Madnlsima, we 

 certainly must admit the existence of white ants 

 in Ceylon at over 4,000 feet elevation, in the dry 

 favourable climate of Uva. Jvot onlv bo, but Mr 

 Egan of Pundaluoya shews that in that district the 

 pests are at work up to 4,700 fact ! This is quite 

 a revelation to us. There is just one qualification 

 that the bottom of this estate is said to border on 

 lowlying paddy fields. Has any one found white 

 ants in Dimbula, Dikoya, or Ma^keliya ? We certainly 

 thought that on the Western and Kandy side of 

 o //,n?'"'°'*'° ranges, we were correct in giving 

 J>,000 J«et M the extreme limit of the abode of these pests 

 87 



WHITE. ANTS AND OTHER INSECT PESTS. 



{Hij an Old Planter.) 



Till some years ago, when the white-ants de- 

 stroyed for me thousands of cacao seedlings, I laughed 

 to scorn .ill who gave them credit for touching any 

 living ti.'Sue. I had lived among them for moro 

 than twenty years, and tijought myself perfectly 

 acquainted with their habits. That they destroy 

 cacao plants I have seen ; and am now ready to 

 believe, on good evidence, that they will devour 

 other things, though I have only seen the one thing 

 myself ; and even now I would like to be as-sured 

 that no other enemy had prt pared the tea plants 

 for them. I know that they are ready enough to 

 walk into a tea stem or branch that the borer has 

 already prepared for them, but hitherto I have not 

 discovered an attack on a healthy tea plant. Long 

 may it be so. 



I have levelled down many scores of ant-hilla, but 

 I have not found an aut the less for that ; they are 

 everywhere, and the least neglect of the necessary 

 precautions is sure to be punished immediately, out- 

 side or in.* 



Although the white-ant has spared the tea hitherto, 

 we are not without insect enemies. The borers are 

 not in great numbers, but I am almost daily coming 

 on their work, and they are found alike in small 

 twigs and stout branches. 



The flush is regularly ruined on special trees by what 

 very much resembles the work of helopeltts ; but I 

 have been unable to discover that or any other 

 insect, on or about the bushes so affected. 



For the first time, about two years ago. I found an 

 insect located on several cacao plants in great num- 

 bers, hanging from the under surface of the leaves 

 which were perforated with many holes. I cleared the 

 plants at first by picking them by hand, but in a few 

 days they were as numerous as ever. The cacao they 

 had fastened on died out, as well as that free from 

 them, and about a year ago I found them on a 

 single tea bush, wh'ch I cut down, and it grew up 

 again free from them. Lately the insect has made 

 Its appearance again, not on one, hut on many bushes. 

 Its presence is proclaimed by a general unhealthy 

 look and many yellow spots on the leaves. 



The only remedy I know is to cut down the bush 

 and burn it. This insect begins life as a very 

 minute grub, which, at its first appearance, sticks 

 to the baik of its native leaf under a pyramidal 

 case, which it m'argesas it grows till it assumes the 

 form of an open bag, hung by a thread ; out of this 

 bag he comes out to feed at night, and stays inside aU 

 day. When he attains to mature grubhood, he seals 

 himself in, and remains suspended till ho comes 

 to his perfect state. I have not succeeded in getting 

 the perfect insect, which is probably a small beetle. 

 The eubstanou of the bag is as strong aa shoe leather. 



London Dock CH.iRoES m Tea.— The comparison 

 should be made thus i a chest of tea weighing 80 lb. 

 to 1'20 lb. was under the old rates charged 2s Id, 

 less 50 per cent discount i.e. net Is 0^ per chest. 

 Under tbetew rates the charge for a chest of similar 

 weight will be Is 6d net, a difference of 5.UI per 

 chest. I.e. an addition of 44 percent on the old ret 

 rates. As the old rates did not pay, that a change 

 was necessary, most people were prepared to allow, 

 but the addition has certainly been more than most 

 people will approve, and carries the question frcm 

 one extreme to the other. — C'o)-., Induin Tea Gazette. 



* Levelling down the nests is not ."sufficient. The breeding 

 combs and the queen ought to be Bcooped out and de* 

 etroyed.— El), 



