March r, 1886.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



595 



"\Vh8n I got thiougli I thought the world was pretty 

 good, so I shook hands all louud me and spiid, " Good 

 evening friends, I wish jou success." As I walked off 

 one fellow said, " I see it — his head is level ;" and 

 Zeke said, " you 're correct for a fact."— Baptist 

 llecor<l. 



TOON 



TEEES NOT EESPONSIBLE FOR 

 HELOPELTIS. 



We are glad to see in the Transactions of the 

 Horticultural Society of India the following 

 oommonscMse reply to an ill-considered letter in 

 which a tea planter traced " mosijuito blight " to 

 innocent toon trees : — 



Mosarrro Bi.ifinT. 



The following letter from Mr. Jolmson, of Jhatra 

 Panighatta, was received in November too late to be 

 read at the meeting for that month : — 



" III a Report of the General Meeting of the Society 

 held on the 'loth October ISS-i, which 1 have only lately 

 seen, I notice a letter from Messrs. Lloyd v\; Co. on the 

 subject of Mosipiit'i Blight on te.i plantations, from 

 which I gather that toon trees planted around or about 

 the cultivation, are supposed to lie the nurseries of the 

 tly. Fri'in my fsperieuro of the blight (which is con- 

 siderable), I (lou'tthiiik tliat any forest tree iu partic- 

 ular can be said to be the breeding place of the jiest. 



Iu the first instance, I believe, the insects come iu from 

 the surrounding jungle, where the .spear and other 

 grass blades will be found to be punctured in a similar 

 manner to the tea leaves. 



When the insects invade the tea, they generally com- 

 mence operations by some forest tree, but simply, I 

 believe, for the shade these trees sujiply, as they appear 

 to dislike the sun, and feed generally during the cool of 

 the mornings and evenings, and I presume at night also. 



In one of my plantations the blight generally begins 

 iu five places about the same time, two of these being 

 shaded by Simul i Bombax Malabaricum), and the 

 others by Palas (Butea Frondosa) trees, which do not 

 seem iu the least affected. It is a noteable fact that the 

 only division having a toon tree close to the cultivation 

 has been hitherto the last to be attacked. The other 

 pl.intatiou J mile aw ay has only four or five trees upon 

 it. one of these being a toon, and the blight did not 

 begin there this year till quite two mouths after it had 

 appeared on the first-named cultivation, and then it 

 affected the whole of the place, more or lefs. at once 

 (not particularly by trees) as though the insects had 

 simply waite i in passing to lay their eugs. w hieh, I may 

 here state, are inserted by the pnrent tlies iu the 

 succulent stems of the tender tea shoots. 



The grt'ate.st damage to the tea bush, I believe, is 

 caused by the young insect before it ha.'s wings, feeding 

 upou tile buds. 



From the foregoing it would appear that forest trees 

 of any kind in te« cultivation only do li.arni in that they 

 give shelter to the insects during the heat of the day, 

 and tiiat plantations without forest trees are just as 

 liable to be affected. We have yet to Cnd out where 

 the blight is bred in the first instance." 



TAM.VRINU SEi;U OIL. 



The follow iiig appears in the Proceedings of the 

 Horticultural Society of India : — 



Baboo Sosi Bliushan Biswas, Editor of the Bhara]- 

 Sranijivi, applied for informatiou as to whether oil had 

 been, to the kuowledge of the Society, extracted from 

 the tamarind seed. The Baboo «as informed that the 

 Society's Journal for Il*36 seemed to contain the only 

 recorded instance of oil being expressed from the seeds 

 of the tamarind. A sample of this oil was sent in 18.56 

 to the Society hy Captain Thomas Davies from Boo!- 

 dana, who mentions that he di.icuven d the seeds would 

 yield an oil much to his own surprise and that of all 

 the natives. He described the oil to be of a fine amber 

 color, free of smell and sweet to the taste, and in his 

 opinion sutible for culinary pnriioscs. The .'iociely's 

 Sub-Oommittee reported favorably on the oil, and sug- 

 gested that it might be f ouud useful in the preparstiou 



of varnishes and p.nints, as well as for burning in lamps. 

 They considered about Bid a maund would be its market 

 price, though this <|Uotation would ue no guide to 

 us now. 



A member of the Committee, Baboo Ran Copaul 

 Ghose, remarked that the tamarind feed (A'vr heechee in 

 Bengal) is mostly thrown away, in times of scarcity it is 

 eaten fried to a limited extent by the jjeur, :inil .t vainLsh 

 for painting idols au'l fiuisliing Kiirpa eluth, and 

 tnUit paper is also prepared from it, but tlio bulk of 

 the seeds are thrown away. The Committee remarked 

 that the oil had a, smell similar to linseed oil, but 

 Captain Daviea subsequently explained that Ibis was 

 due to the mill in which it was e.xpressed being ono 

 ordinarily used for making that oil. Babu Sosi 

 Bhushan Biswas has been asked to communicate further 

 particulars as to the result of his own experiment. 



Insect Pests of India are thus noticed in the 

 Proceedings of the Hoiticultural Society of India : — 

 An interesting correspondence under the above head- 

 ing was receutly published iu the Jmniial of the Society 

 of Arts, at the request of the Secretary of State for 

 India. The corrcspoudcnce is too long for a place in 

 these proceedings' but the following extract from Sur- 

 geou-Geuoral Kdward Balfeur's letter to the Secretary 

 of State for India will convey an ilea of the purport : 

 "Although every year, to some extent, nud from tiiun 

 to time largely, losses occur there from the pests which 

 attack agricultural produce, India has hitherto been 

 remiss in this matter, contenting itself with references 

 as to individual insects or blights to ste_-h peisons as 

 were thought likely to be able to give information. 

 But the subject is of far too great importance to Agri- 

 cultural India to be left tu be treated iu so casual 

 a manner, and the special kuowledge now availablo 

 might be utilized to describe the insects which injure 

 the agricultural, horticultural and forest produce of 

 India, suggesting means of of preventing, and remedies 

 for the same." Miss Ormerod, who in Euglnnd 

 annually reports on the insects injurious to food 

 crops, forest trees, ami fruits, and tho preventinn 

 of insect ravag(;s, in writing to Surgeon-General 

 Balfour, warmly approves of his suggesliow, and re- 

 marks : -" The information that isneeded could begiven 

 by plain and simple putting down by various persore of 

 wh.at they themselves have observed, and one man not- 

 ices, perhaps, hpw deep the grubs go ; another how 

 long they live ; and so by collating the facts, we get to 

 know the whole ..islory of haljils, which is what is 

 needed to work on. It may take a few years to get 

 the whole life history of the insects, but v.c soon get 

 in the way meiiliouefl above (on which [jlau my own 

 reports are formed) to I 'am the main points, and 

 then all observers are ri quested to find the missing 

 part of the history." Tho whole of the correspondence 

 will be reprinted in the Jonrmif. Members of the 

 Society wishing to co-opernte iu the manner suggested 

 in the above extract from Miss Ormtrod's letter should 

 send their names to the Secretary. 



A CONTRIBUTION TO THE STUDY Ob' TRAN- 

 SPIRATION UNDER THE DIFFERENT 

 BAYS OK THE SOLAR SPECTRUM. 

 A paper on the above subject by Rev. Professor 

 Henslow was read at the Limiean Society on Thurs- 

 day last, December :ird. The experiments describi \ 

 were undertaken to test the results of Wiesner, who 

 found (contrary to tho opinion of others, who thought 

 that the brightest rays of tho spectrum were the 

 chief cause of transpiration) that it was mainly due to 

 the rays which are absorbed by chlorophvll. Tho 

 spectriira of that substance reveals seven absorption 

 bands, tho m.ist powerful of which are in tho 

 red. blue, and .violet, and when plants were grown 

 under coloured glasses Mr. Hensloxy. found just as 

 Wiesner had ilone that transpiiation attains to a. 

 maximum under tho nionochromatic red glass and 

 under the blue and violet as well, while ordinarj 

 colourless glass gave another maxiinuni. On the 

 other band yellow »ud greeu {^ave a iQiuimuu. 



