Vol. XVI. No. 405. 



THE AGEICULTURAL NEWS 



347 



and nights, though efforts were made to disturb and dislodge 

 them in the fields by beating and shaking the cotton bushes. ' 

 Traplights have been recommended by various investigators 

 for use agamst this pest, but the above experiments have 

 shown such methods to be valueless. 



Mr. Busck says the idea that these moths were 

 attracted to light is based on unsatisfactory evidence, and is 

 probably due to misidentification of the material collected 

 in the traps. 



These notes will be continued ita the next issue. 



J.C.H. 



THE BLACK WEEVIL BORER OF 

 BANANAS. 



In the memorandum on the black weevil borer of bananas 

 {Cosmopolites soi-didiis) addressed by the Commissioner of 

 Agriculture to the Governor of .Jamaica in April last, 

 the .suggestion is made that sliced banana bulbs placed 

 on the ground in banana fields may prove so attractive to the 

 weevils that they may congregate in such numbers on the 

 material as to make it easy to collect them as a means of 

 control. This fact has been verified by the Director of 

 Agriculture of .Jamaica, who states in a recent communi- 

 cation that sliced banana bulbs are proving very attractive 

 to the above insect pest of bananas in that island, and that 

 this material is being used to trap the weevils, which are 

 then collected and destroyed. These traps are now in use in 

 several localities infested by this pest, and in one place as 

 much as 2 quarts of weevils were collected by this means 

 over an area of i-acre, and these measures resulted in 

 a subsequent scarcity of weevils in that locality. 



The above method of trapping the black banana weevil 

 is certainly worth a I rial in those islands where this insect 

 is known to be a pest, as it may prove to be useful not 

 only as a means of reducing the numbers of this weevil but 

 also of determining whether it is present in a given locality 

 or not. 



The employment of good cultural methods especially in 

 weevil-infested areas, is apparently meeting with marked 

 saccess in .Jamaica, and has already resulted in the produc- 

 tion of vigorous and healthy banana plants in what were 

 formerly considered bad weevil districts 



In addition to being useful as' a means of trapping 

 this pest, the employment of sliced banana bulbs may be 

 recommended as a means of ascertaining the presence of this 

 pest in banana cultivation 



It is hoped that experiments be made by agricultural 

 officers in this direction as widely as possible in order that 

 the distribution of this insect in each island, and amongst 

 the islands may be ascertained. 



THE SWEET POTATO ROOT WEEVIL. 



In the course of a review of some insect pests of Jamaica in 

 the Agricultural News for September 22, 1£ 17, the distri- 

 bution of the above insect (Cylas forniicarius) was given, and 

 reference was made to the fact that this pest has recently 

 become established in some districts of the State of Florida. A 

 public notice has recently been issued by the State Plant Board 

 of Florida declaring that, the sweet potato root weevil is an 

 insect pest, and that sweet potato plants, vines, slips, cuttings, 

 draws, and tubers, and morning glory {Ipouioea ap.) vines 

 and roots are likely to become infested by said insect pest. 

 This notice also declares certain definite areas within the 

 State of Florida to be already infested with this pest, and 

 prohibits the movement or shipment of any of the above 



parts of the sweet potato or morning glory plants from such 

 infested areas into or through all parts of the State of Florida 

 other than the specified infested areas. Further, the notice 

 prohibits the movement or shipment of sweet potato tubera 

 in the manner stated above unless first fumigated by an 

 agent of the Plant Board and certified by him. 



The above notice is not to be construed as preventing the 

 shipment of sweet potato tubers from infested sections in the 

 State of Florida to points in other States when such tubers are 

 securely sacked and shipped in tightly closed cars in carload 

 shipments; further, the shipment of canned sweet- potatoes is 

 not prevented by the notice. 



AGRIOQLTURAL DEVELOPMENT IN 



INDIA. 



The Field, of September 8, 1917, contains a short article 

 on the above subject, from which we take the following 

 extract: — - 



'The emphasis which is naturally and very properly laid 

 on the immensity of the resources, actual and potential, 

 possessed by the Dominions of the Overseas Empire, with 

 their wide tracts oi arable and pastoral country calling out 

 for development by white settlers, has a tendency to push into 

 the background remembrances of the immensity of India's 

 resources. Yet the part which that wonderful country plays 

 in the economy of the Empire is already one of prime 

 importance, and is destined to assume still larger dimensions. 

 There are in India nearly three-fourths of the total population 

 of the British Empire, and the production of food supplies 

 and raw materials for the requirements of its three hundred 

 millions and more inhabitants is on a scale of which few 

 people have conception. Though the home requirements 

 of India absorb the bulk of its production, the small fraction 

 which alone remains for export, in the ca.se of most of its crops, 

 suffices to place it in the front rank of the countries frontt 

 which the United Kingdom draws its supplies. With its 

 hundreds of millions of people and hundreds of millions 

 of acres under crop, India cannot be called an undevel- 

 oped country; yet the future of its agricultural industries 

 contains the promise of very great expansion. The possibilities 

 of such expan.sion consist not only in the increase of the area 

 under cultivation, but in the increa.se of the average yield. 

 Take the case of wheat for example. Rice may be the staple 

 article of diet throughout the greater part of India, but 

 wheat is the main food crop of the people of Upper India. 

 From 80 to 90 per cent, of the crop is retained in the country 

 for local requirements, but the remaining 10 to 20 per cent, 

 furnished us before the war with between one-fifth and 

 one-sixth of our imports of wheat. The expansion of 

 cultivation has been very marked during recent years. The 

 average area under wheat cultivation in India during 

 the last five years of the last century was rather more 

 than 22^ million acres; the preliminary estimate for this 

 last season, 1916-17, was 33 million acres, an increase 

 of nearly 50 per cent. The fact that the fluctuations in 

 the area under a single crop in India may be measured in 

 millions of acres from year to year is in itself a striking 

 indication of the scale on which Indian agriculture is 

 practised. The average yield, however, of this last year's 

 wheat crop is estimated at only about 1 1 bushels per acre, 

 so that it will be seen how much may be hoped from the 

 efforts which are being made by the Imperial and Provincial 

 Departments of Agriculture to introduce improved varieties 

 of wheat, efforts which have already begun to be attended by 

 gratifying success.' 



