8 May, 1908.] Insect Pests in Foreign Lands. 277- 



latter, as scmdii as I had explained my mission, nominated me as an honorary 

 member of the Conference. During the week that the Conference was. 

 sitting, I met most of the leading agriculturists and teachers representing 

 nearly every island in the West Indies, and learnt more from them than I 

 would have been able to do in a month otherwise. The chief industry in. 

 Barbados, until the last few years, has been sugar, and the island is dotted 

 over with small mills, many of which are worked with windmills. Within 

 the last year several mills have been fitted up with modern machinery, and 

 propose to buy and crush cane on the co-operative plan. In 1906 Barba- 

 dos exported 50,630 tons of sugar, while the total output of the West In- 

 dies and British Guiana was 254,118 tons valued at ^-•157.147- 



The revival of the cotton industry in the West Indies has been one ot 

 the most imj)ortant events of the last few years, and the total area now 

 under cultivation is over 24,000 acres, chiefly in the islands of St. Vin- 

 cent, Monserrat, Nevis, Antigua, and Barbados; on the latter, 6,935 acres 

 are under cotton, the value of the crop being estimated at ;^i 20,000. In 

 Bridgetown there is a co-operative cotton ginning mill, which was com- 

 pleted last year, and is said to be the largest sea island cotton mill in the 

 world. Sea island cotton is a very profitable crop, bringing up to 2s. 6d. 

 per lb. J one lot from St. Vincent realizing as high as 2s. 8d., or 64 cents, 

 per lb. Cotton has a number of enemies, though there is nothing like the 

 American boll weevil in the islands. The most destructive are the two- 

 cotton worms (Aletia argillacea and A. lividida) which attack the foliage. 

 These pests are controlled by the dusting of the foliage with dry Paris- 

 green mixed with lime dusted over the plants. The boll worm and the 

 larvae of two common moths {Heliothis armiger and Lafhygma jrugiferdd) 

 also damage the bolls. I am, however, told that cotton aphis is one of 

 the worst pests at certain seasons, and as it attacks the under-surface of 

 the leaves is difficult to destroy. A scale insect {Lecanium nigrum) at 

 times is verv abundant on the twigs, and red maggots, the larvae of a 

 Cecidomyia fly, congregate under the decaying bark of any branchlet at- 

 tacked by fungus disease. Lately another species of Cecidomyia fly has- 

 been found depositing her eggs in the flowers of cotton growing at Antigua. 

 and the larvae are said to feed upon the pollen and cause the flowers 

 to drop. 



Montserrat and Dominica are the chief islands where limes are grown 

 for the manufacture of limejuice and citrate of lime, and the value of 

 these products from these islands in 1906 was ^62,057. In Montserrat 

 there is a plantation of 2,000 acres; all of these trees are very much in- 

 fested with scale insects, chiefly white louse {Cliionaspis citri) and brown 

 olive scale {Lecanium olece). It is said that the whole of the forest trees 

 is scale infested, and the country is so rough that the trees which interlace 

 overhead cannot.be sprayed or fumigated. 



I found no evidence of fruit fly in any of the islands, but obtained a 

 report upon the action taken by the Government in Bermuda to deal with 

 the fruit flies in that island. Early last year the Governor passed an Act 

 entitled '' The Fruit Fly Destruction Act,'' which is administered by Mr. 

 T J. Harris, Director of the Public Gardens of Bermuda, who furnished 

 a report upon the work done up to the middle of August. The Act came 

 into force on ist March, the Legislature having granted the sum of ^500 

 for the purpose of carrying into effect the recommendation of the Board 

 of Agriculture, namely, "That an attempt be made to eradicate from this 

 island the insect pest known as the Fruit Fly {Cer otitis c a pi tat a). As 



