8 jNIav. J908.] Insect /'tsrs in boreigu Lajuis. 



INSECT PE8T8 IN FOREIGN LANDS. 



{Continued from page 143.) 

 Fifth Progress Report bv ^fR. W. W. Froggatt, F.L.S., F.E.S. 



28th Jaiiuarv, 1908. 



My last report dealt with m\ investigations in Mexico. Since then I 

 have been through the West Indies, and am writing this report at sea on 

 my road to Lonoon, where we are timed to reach on loth Februarv. There 

 I propose to see as many of the economic entomologists as I can> and all 

 ihe collections of economic work, at the same time finding out all I can 

 about the quickest methods of seeing the economic entomologists of 

 Southern Europe w'ho are interested in fruit flies and other pests. 



I left Vera Cruz, Mexico, on 28th November, and came round by Pro- 

 gressp on the coast of Yucatan, where we spent a day loading bales of 

 sisal fibre, the chief product of this State. We reached Havana on the 

 2nd December. As soon as I landed I engaged an interpreter, and, after 

 calling upon the British Consul, presented mv credentials to the Minister 

 tjf Agriculture, who gave me letters to the scientific societies and the Direc- 

 tor of the Exi:)eriment Station at Santiago des Vegas, to which place 

 (fourteen miles out of town) I went next day. 



The Director, Mr. I. F. Crawley, and his staff (all Americans) did 

 ■everything they could to make my stay profitable, and I spent a good deal 

 of time at this Station. The greater part of tliis district is red soil over 

 limestone formation, and one of the most profitable industries is growing 

 wrapper leaf tobacco. Nearlv all the small holders grow some tobacco, 

 sometimes shaded with banana plants, but more often without; they all 

 •cultivate and water by hand. There are, however, a number of large 

 growers who cover the plants with cheese cloth, which protects them from 

 insect pests, breaks the direct rays of the sun, and keeps the soil moist, 

 so that the plants grow more rapidlv, and with perfectly shaped leaves. 

 One firm has 30 acres sheltered with cheese cloth on poles and wire about 

 9 feet in lieight. The filling tobacco is grown in the ordinary manner. 

 The chief pests of the tobacco planter are the larvae of the large hawk 

 moths (probably several species), and cut worms. The men employed 

 on the tobaccO' estates are constantly going over the plants, and hand 

 jjicking the grubs, for even a small hole spoils a wrapper leaf. 



A number of citrus orchards have been started during the last few 

 \ears by American growers, and consist of grape fruit (pomelos), oranges, 

 mandarins, and a few lemons, but three-quarters of the trees grown are 

 grape fruit, which is the fashionable fruit in the United States, and it is 

 now being shipped to England. It is extensively grown in Florida, Cuba, 

 Porto Rico, and Jamaica, and is eaten as a breakfast fruit with sugar. 

 There is a semi-wild species common in the peasants' gardens which has 

 a smooth skin, with a very fine flavor, but is smaller than the cultivated 

 ones. Grape fruit usually brings 4 dollars (i6s. 8d.) a case in the New 

 York market. All the citrus fruits in Cuba are badlv discolored with mela- 

 nose or rust mite, and many of the fruits look as if they had been dipped 

 into ink — they are so black — whilst others are rustv red. Several Tccanid 

 scales are very abundant and blacken the trees with smut. One very large 

 Lecanid scale, which I saw here for the first time, attacks the bark some- 

 what like "woollv aphis." and damages the bark where it is cracked or 



