132 



The process of harvesting is also said to be very wasteful. 

 The corn is stacked for months before being threshed and thus 

 giving an opportunity for attack by insects and animals. 



From the above enumerated list of devastators it would seem 

 that rice growing in Hawaii is entirely immune from many of the 

 attacks which threaten the industry in Ceylon. 



TREE PLANTING. 



In planting trees, too great stress cannot be lain upon seeing 

 that the holes in which they are to be set are thoroughly pre 

 pared and fertilized. The plant should be set so that when the 

 soil has settled, its surface will be three or four inches below 

 that of the surrounding ground. If this is done the amount of 

 water and attention required will not be nearly so much as if 

 set in any other position. Xot only is careless planting re- 

 sponsible for slow^ and stunted growth, but the general low 

 vitality of the plant wdiich results, is a direct invitation to in- 

 sect attack, which will not long go unheeded. Trees and 

 shrubs of vigorous growth are generally able to resist blight 

 and other pests, and the best way to insure this is to exercise 

 care at the time of planting. 



MOSQUITOES AND CERTAIN PLANTS. 



The recent investigations undertaken to establish the relation- 

 ship of certain diseases to mosquitoes is rendered more interest- 

 ing from the fact that to certain plants are attributed the quality 

 of being inimical to the presence of these obnoxious insects. 

 Among the plants attributed with this desirable quality are to be 

 noticed Riciuis conununis, the ''castor oil" plant, and Helianthus 

 annus, the familiar "sunflower." Both of these plants are, apart 

 from this reputed virtue, of such economic importance that they 

 should be planted extensively in all low-lying and marshy neigh- 

 borhoods, or upon those in which mosquitoes are common. The 

 origin of the belief in the efficiency of the presence of sunflower to 

 prevent malaria and fevers, if its unfavorable influence upon mos- 

 quitoes be true, is thus readilv understood. 



