684 Journal of Agriculture. [8 Nov., 1907. 



into Hawaii) to see if they could find the home of the pest, and its parasites 

 if any. In the middle of 1904 they found this pest common in the North 

 Queensland Plantations, and also discovered a small hymenopterous para- 

 site destroying its eggs. The infested eggsi were sent in cane stems to 

 Honolulu, anu the parasite is now so well established that the leaf hopper 

 is kept in check. Still there is a good number of the destructive leaf 

 hoppers to be found, and it will be interesting to watch later developments. 

 It seemsi incredible that the parasites have mastered the hoppers in such 

 a short space of time as two years, and spread to all the sugar cane, how- 

 ever carefully they have been spread by the entomologists of the Sugar 

 Planters' Association. There can be no question about the value of this 

 parasite and another since introduced from Fiji, but there may be also 

 other agencies at work in checking leaf hoppers, one of which is the return 

 of some of the companies to the old method of cleaning up the cane fields 

 by burning up all rubbish. Harder stemmed varieties of cane are also not 

 so subject to the attacks of leaf hoppers in the stem. 



At the present time there is an agent of the Sugar Planters' Association 

 in India and Java looking for a parasite for the cane weevil {Spl/eiioporns 

 <?Z'5tw/-«i ) introduced from Tahiti in banana stems over 40 years ago. This 

 beetle burrows in the stems of the adult cane in the larval state, causing it 

 to decay, and does a great deal of damage where numerous ; it is probably 

 the worst of the sugar cane pests at present. Another important industry 

 in the islands is pine apple culture, and over 3,000 acres of pine apples, 

 are now grown at Wahiawa, about 25 miles from Honolulu at an elevation 

 of about 1,000 feet. The output from the three large canneries for this 

 year is estimated at 500,000 cases of canned pineapples, each case contain- 

 ing two dozen tins of about 2 lbs. to the tin. All the work on the planta- 

 tions is done by Japanese. The insect pests of pineapples are a mealy 

 bug {Pseudococcus citri) and a leaf scale {Diaspis bromelice). The most 

 serious damage to the pineapple is caused by a ripe rot (Thielaviopsis 

 eihaceticus Went.) which starts at the base and spreads upwards. 



The export of honey to the United States from the Hawaiian Islands 

 's another important industry, and all the ranches run apiaries ; almost 

 ill the honey is obtained from the flowers of the Algeroba trees {Prosopis 

 juliford) — -introduced from INIexico and forming extensive thickets along all 

 the coast lands. When the Pure Food Act came into force last year in 

 the United States, it was discovered that the Hawaiian honey would not 

 pass the test of pure honey, as it was also collected by the bees from the 

 honey-dew exuded by the froghoppers in the cane fields and therefore con- 

 tained water. This very sweet white honey is largely used by the pastry- 

 cooks in California to make biscuits and cakes, and though at first it 

 was suggested to get over the diflficulty by calling it " honey-dew honey " 

 the bee-keepers objected so strongly that a compromise was effected by 

 calling it "white honev " under which name it is allowed into the States. 

 The question that the bees collect honey-dew from insects that eject this 

 fluid has not, as far as I am aware, ever been raised in Australia, but in 

 some districts where flowers are scarce, and such insects of psyllids, aphis, 

 and froghoppers are abundant, bees might acquire the same habit in 

 Australia. One of the questions among the bee-keepers in the Islands 

 is the planting of flowering shrubs and trees that will secrete nectar. 

 Those that will also grow into timber are much in favour, for with the 

 exception of the algeroba, there are no trees upon the Islands that will 

 supply firewood. It is, however, interesting to find that Australian 

 Eucalypts, Wattles, and Sheoaks, such as Eucalyptus globulus, E. rohusta^ 



