2l8 



Branch cutting Beetle. 



Revd. George Davidson, Arcadia, Chapelton, writes : — 

 " Accompanying this I send you for inspection a bit of stick of 

 the Beechwood. You will observe one end has apparently been 

 cut by a saw. I have recently found many such pieces some very 

 much thicker but all bearing the same appearance. The cuttings 

 are not confined to any one particular kind of tree. I yesterday 

 saw two much thicker branches of the tamarind tree. lam curious 

 to know what is the insect or reptile responsible for this work. 

 Some of the peasantry attribute it to a large lizard known to them 

 as " Dom Sawyer." Your opinion will be greatly appreciated." 



The insect responsible is a beetle* which lays its egg in a branch 

 near the end, and gnaws the wood right round, so that the end 

 dies and falls off. The larva feeds on the dead wood, and only 

 emerges when it transforms into the perfect insect. The remedy 

 is to collect and burn all the dead girdled branches which contain 

 larvse, and to destroy all the beetles when found on the trees. 



THE MANUFACTURE OF STARCH FROM 

 THE POTATO IN GERMANY. 



By H. H. Cousins, M.A., F.C.S., Island Chemist. 



As sugar cane is to the sugar beet so is the tropical cassava 

 plant to the potato of temperate climates. To establish a cassava 

 starch industry in Jamaica on a sound basis it will be necessary to 

 conduct the cultivation and process of manufacture with as efficient 

 methods as those now obtaining in the rival potato starch industry 

 so as to obtain the full benefit of the superior starch producing 

 powers of the tropical plant. 



I have therefore thought that it might be of interest to those 

 who are considering cassava as a possible crop for Jamaica to 

 give some general idea of the potato starch industry as at present 

 carried on in Germany. 



THE POTATO A3 A SOURCE OF STARCH. 



The season of growth greatly affects both the yield of tubers 

 and the starch content. There is also a very great variation in the 

 starch value of different varieties of potato and again between in- 

 dividual tubers of the same variety. 



The late Professor Maercker, who played the chief part in 

 establishing the potato industry of Germany on a firm agricultural 

 and technical basis, found individual tubers containing as much 

 as 29 per cent, of starch and in a warm season of favourable 

 growth he frequently recorded the analysis of samples containing 

 25 to 27 per cent, of starch. Maercker found, however, that while 

 some tubers gave this high amount of starch, others from the same 



* Oncideies pustulata. . * 



