226 INSECTS ABROAD. 



damage is caused by carelessness with regard to the manure 

 which is used for the ground. In the West Indies, the cattle are 

 littered with cane- tops and leaves ; and if these be taken to the 

 fields before they have been thoroughly decomposed, eggs or 

 larvte of the Sugar Weevil will most probably be taken with them, 

 and so placed in the very best position for damaging the crops. 



Vigilant sugar-planters keep a watchful eye on the young 

 plants ; and when they see the whorl of terminal leaves begin- 

 ning to drop, they know at once that the Weevil-grub is there. 

 Such plants are at once pulled up and burned, and their places 

 supplied by healthy plants. Besides this precaution, another is 

 taken, viz. of " trashing " the whole of the plants, i.e. removing 

 the lower leaves, which act as a sort of cover for the Weevil. 

 This operation should be performed at least every two months, 

 and oftener if possible, so as to give the Weevil as little chance 

 as possible of penetrating the cane. Loose sugar-cane leaves are 

 known by the popular name of " trash," and hence the term 

 " trashing " is used to express simply the removal of such leaves. 



We will now notice a portion of Mr. King's elaborate memoir 

 on the Sugar Weevil, as quoted in Mr. Gosse's " Naturalist's 

 Sojourn in Jamaica ; " — 



"An egg the size of a small bead, in a considerable degree 

 transparent, is deposited within the succulent vessels of the 

 cane, wdiere the adhering footstalk of the leaf retains the de- 

 cayed foliage hanging to the germinating joint. 



" The egg deposited is hatched at the time when the growing 

 bud, usually called the eye, exhibits the active influences of both 

 heat and moisture. As soon as the maggot is formed, it com- 

 mences its voracious injuries by worming its way from the verge 

 of the footstalk where it had been hatched, into the very body 

 of the succulent and vegetating shoot, where it grows with its 

 growth, and strengthens with its strength. It then occupies the 

 centre of the plant, making its way upward through the growing 

 cane, but remaining within the sweet and perfected joints, and 

 never ascending to the greener tops to devour the germ and 

 destroy vegetation. It entirely exhausts the saccharine fluid in 

 those joints in which it has lodged — filling the excavation it 

 makes with an excrementitious deposit, extremely injurious to 

 the cane liquor from the mill; deteriorating it rapidly if it 

 remain untempered while running into the pans. 



