Septembek I, 1SS5.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



231 



[Our entomological referee informs U8 that the insect is 

 of the Fam. Limacodidee, sp. Naroxa adala (Monre) 

 but it feeds on rambutan leaves and will not touch 

 those of cacao, and in any case could do no harm, 

 being a very harmless moth. Our correspondent must 

 be in error about it feeding on cacao leaves ? It 

 would be well if eoine of the food leaves were sent 

 along with any enemies of products, in future forwarded 

 to us for report. — Ed.] 



WHITE-ANTS AT OVER 4,000 FEET IN UVA. 



4th August 1S85. 



Dear Sir,— Allow me to inform you that white 

 ant^ destroy all the timber in buildings iu this 

 bungalow and othera at a similar elevation, viz., 

 4,000. In this climate they seem to come any 

 height after their food. 



I hope they will leave our tea alone in Uva ; for if 

 our cotfee be condemned and cut out, cinchona not 

 worth harvesting, cardamoms for the most part stolen, 

 and tea eaten up by white-ants, verily our last state 

 will be the worst. — Yours truly, A. C. I. 



P. iS, — This is not a Baillie Street scare ! 



WHITE-ANTS IN PUNDALUOYA AT 



4,700 FEET. 



Fernlauds, 5th August 1885. 



Dear Sir, — With reference to a paragraph in your 

 paper on white-ants on Fernlands aud its elevation, 

 I canuot say exactly what the elevation is, but if 

 the top of Kaipoogalla estate ia 5,000 feet, as it is 

 stated to be, I can show you white-ants at about 

 4,700 feet in the timbers of a cattleshed on Fern- 

 lands which is considerably higher than either store 

 or bungalow, in both of which they have been for 

 years. 



In your Directory I see Kumbalula is 4,414 feet 

 elevation, but I don't know what trig, station this 

 is.— Yours faithfully, HENRY L. EGAN. 



WHITE-ANTS ATTACKING HEALTHY 

 TEA PLANTS. 

 Eton, Pundaluoya, 8th Aug. 18S5. 



Dear Sir, — In your issue of the Cth inst,, a 

 correspondent mentions that he has never known 

 white-ants to attack a healthy tea plant. On 

 Eton estate I have lost a good many plants from 

 this cause, the stems being completely ' ringed ' 

 just below the level of the ground. As the plant 

 takes some time to show the effects of this treatment, 

 the animals have generally cleared off before the 

 damage is discovered. But on one occasion I found 

 the white antj actually at work. 



I am inclined to think that the ineeote are 

 originally attracted by the pegs, which are often 

 eaten clean off below the ground, and that from 

 these tbe.T turn their attention to the tea plants 

 close at hand, 



A plaat that has been riuged will continue to 

 grow for two or th ee months, the leaves pradnally 

 turning yellow and dropping off when the stem 

 dries up , or it may Oi;oasionally throw down fresh 

 toots from abofe the injured part. 



Another species of termite — a little yellow insect 

 — is very destructive to garden plants and vegetables 

 dt thii elevation, and m.ikeg ihe cultivation of 

 po'atoes an iniposaibility. — Yours faithfullv, 

 E. E. GHEElif. 



WHITE-ANTS IN UVA. 



Padulla, 10th August 1885. 



Dear ^\v„ — With rcfcrciRu to what his lately 



apiieavd in your columns respecting white-ants, I 



find them here at an elevation of from .'5,700 to 



over 4,000 ftet, destroying the bark of living and 



healthy blue gum, fir, fig and cinchona trees : in 

 the case of the latter, they were attracted by the 

 covering of maua grass put on the trees after a 

 shaving. They also attack cofT«^e in instances where 

 leaf disease has worked its debilitating effect. — Y'nurs 

 faithfully. Q, 



WATER-CRESS IN CEYLON. 



(Conimnnicated,) 



In Moon's time — IS24 — the common water-cress, 

 {Nanturtium officinale, L.) was pretty well naturalized 

 in Ceylon, and since then nearly every stream running 

 through the estates in the Kaudyan country has the 

 water-cress growing iu it, the plant being known to 

 the Sinhalese as kakkvta pdla. 



In reference to the idea of Natural Selection, we 

 some time ago alluded to the facts recorded by Sir 

 Joseph Hooker, that the water-cress introduced into 

 New Zealand found such a congenial climate there 

 that it grew to a length of 1'2 feet, and one inch in 

 diameter, and it cost Government £300 per annum to 

 keep the mouth of one of the -ivers clear of this intro- 

 duction to enable the stream to be navigated. A corre- 

 spondent who took a stroll on t.'e bauks of the Damba- 

 gastalawaoya from Cymru as fav as Elgin, a few days 

 ago, informs us, that, seeing a donse mass of green 

 vegetation on the other side of the river, covering 

 the banks up to the level ground on the top, and 

 not recognizing it, he got a handful of it picked by 

 one of the men in the lines clot e bj', when he found 

 it was a bed of water-creo^; one of the top bits of 

 which measured upwards of h feet in length and 

 ^rd of an inch in d'ameter, and ^p. believes that 

 entire plants in that bed measure 6 feei nnd J inch, 

 so that we can grow water-cress in Ceylou ^ue-half 

 the size attained in New Z 'aland ! 



Heavy Crops of Rice in Ceylon. — In re- 

 ference to the large returns of paddy from flooded fields 

 iu the North-Western Province, it is worth quoting a 

 letter from Mudaliyar S. Jayetilleko of Kurunegala, with 

 fuller information : — " In this district there are a very 

 few first-class fields ; on the banks of the Mahaoya and 

 Deduruoya, which are flooded yearly during the heavy rains 

 there are fields which, with favourable weathcrif cultivated 

 at the proper season, give forty-fold, that is to s.ay 100 

 bushels to an acre. Fields of this di'scription may be counted 

 on one's fingers, but with all the advantages you 

 describe, viz:— a good paddy field, where the water is 

 never wanting and the soil good, and if cultivated dnj-ini/ ihe 

 proper faiiOH a return of tn'entl/fold is sure to be realized. 

 Such fields cannot be cultivated for two harvests in the 

 year, and if cultivated (with plenty of water) &c., the 

 highest crop that could be realized is fifteen-fold. Such 

 fields are few and far between." 



PLA^TINO IV Brazil.— The Oazeta de Notictae says 

 that a large planter of S. Paulo has notified the 

 Sockdadc Ce.niarl de Iiiimigrafdo that he is ready to 

 accommodate, within 24 hours, .300 families of im. 

 migrants upon the following conditions : 1st. Cultivation 

 of the coffee trees before bearing, at 50$ per annum 

 per 1 000 trees 1 2iul, Cultivation of the trees without 

 payment, the immigrant to receive ,500 reis per 50 litres 

 of cherries gathered : 8rd. Cultivation of the trees at 

 $10000 per cnyi/Hrt and p.iyment of 240 reis per 50 litreo 

 of cherries : 4th. House and f'-ee land for planting 

 cereals: 5th. Rations, farm iniplemi nts and clothing 

 during the first year, to be paid for by deductions from 

 the profits as Verilied. A very fair advance, and a 

 further proof that 8. Paulo continues to I'-ad the rest 

 of the empire in the immigration ijuestion. — liio Neics. 



"WELLS' ROUGH ON CORNS." 

 .Ask for Wells' "Konyh on Corns." (,>nick relief com— 

 pli-to. pvniKincnt cnri-. Corns. w:irls, bunions, W. K, 

 Smith Js; Co.,. Madras, Sole Agents. 



