THE VVATHLK PLANTATION 40 



But unfortunately this applies only to the exposed 

 feeders and leaf eating insects. Those which are living 

 in the wood or in the soil are much less subject to these 

 various diseases, and rgain with the absence of i)arasites, 

 have a chance to increase at a rapid rate. Dead or sickly 

 trees, not being removed, form centres from which the 

 neighbouring living timber is being infested, and form a 

 constant danger. That this danger is not imaginary was 

 brought home to the writer in a plantation near the Coast 

 where three acres of promising young trees had been 

 destroyed by a small wood borer, Eunidia pusilla, which 

 had bred in a few isolated trees scattered through the 

 block and which had been pointed out by him two years 

 previously. 



Thus during the time that the trees should receive most 

 careful attention in the way of cultivation to destroy root 

 feeding insects, and the removal of dead and sickly trees, 

 they are being practically entirely neglected. 



When the surviving trees become mature, say eight 

 years old, the stripping and felling begins. These 

 operations can be passed over as having no bearing on the 

 insect problem. What interests us is the fate of the 

 plantation after the harvest is completed. The brush- 

 wood is heaped over the stumps, ( and when too far from 

 the rail-head to make the removal of the wood profitable, 

 the stems also) is left to dry, awaiting a favourable 

 opportunity to be burned up when the barking of the en- 

 tire block is completed. This may be several weeks or 

 even months, depending on the size of the blocks being 

 stripped and the weather conditions; in the majority of 

 cases the burning is postponed until well into September 

 or October. Now as a rule the trees which are being 

 felled have been infested with bagworms the previous 

 season, while many other leaf -eating insects are in the 

 cocoon stage. This brushwood being left for a consider- 

 able length of time the bagworms reach maturity, mate, 

 oviposit and the young are found hatching before the 

 burning and we see the brushwood covered with the webb- 



