THE JHAWAIIAN 



f ORESTER M AGRICULTURIST 



Vol. XII. MAY, 1915. No. 5 



HEN FLEAS AND ANTS. 



Dr. Illingworth's article in this number, on the hen flea, will 

 be welcomed by poultry raisers here, as the pest mentioned is 

 one of the things that make people who keep a few hens for 

 domestic economy's sake tired of the gentle industry. By follow- 

 ing the directions in the paper they may hope to get rid of this 

 particular nuisance. 



An interesting point in the article is the reference to the work 

 of the small brown ant in getting away with these fleas. If the 

 little "brownie" is a benefactor in this respect, its character is 

 different from that given, with respect to injurious plant insects, 

 to the small black biting ant. A letter from a planter in the 

 Seychelles group, forwarded by the curator of the botanic gar- 

 dens in Dominica to the Agricultural News, arraigns the littic 

 black fellow as a mischief worker. It is charged with transplant- 

 ing the larvae of certain noxious scales from their birthplaces to 

 the leaves of valuable fruit trees and plants, such as grafted 

 mango, young orange shoots, pineapples, etc. The writer of the 

 letter says : 



"Personally I have been convinced for a long time that the ant 

 is responsible for the spread of many injurious insects. It roams 

 over the whole land here, and I believe it selects by instinct or by 

 trial every plant or tree that suits those insects of which it can 

 make use and then starts the colonies of them. I am under the 

 impression that the large black biting ant also cultivates insects 

 for use, but in this case altogether underground and possibly on 

 roots. If there is any practicable method of abolishing" ants, I 

 should be very glad indeed to hear of it." 



DI\T-DIVI A VALUABLE DYE SOURCE. 



Introducing the following article from the Board of Trade 

 Journal for December 24, 1914, the Agricultural News (W. I.) 

 says that divi-divi has often been mentioned in its columns, and 

 that the commercial product consists of the pods of Cacsalpinia 

 coriaria, which is a native of the tropical regions of America and 

 occurs in West Africa : 



"The board of trade committee for chemicals and dye stuff's 

 has received the following information from a reliable source: 

 Divi-divi is a very useful dye extracted from the seed-pod of a 



