81 



Work connected with Insect and Fungus Pests and their Control.— 



Rept. Agric. Dept. St. Kitts-Nevis for 1916-1917, Barbados, p. 12 

 and p. 36. [Received 29tli December 1917.] 



During the year ending March 1916, grasshoppers were reported as 

 being very destructive, necessitating the use of poisoned bran mixture. 

 Cockroaches also injured very young cotton in some districts, but were 

 kept in check by a poisoned bait of 1 part Paris green to 40 parts of 

 maize meal. 



In 1917, Mr. W. I. Howell reported from Nevis the prevalence of 

 Alabama argillacea (cotton worm), little damage, however, being done 

 to the cotton crop, while Eriophyes gossypii (leaf-bhster mite) was less 

 numerous than for some time past. Early in August a species of 

 Lachnopus did a considerable amount of damage to cotton locally, 

 Paris green and lime proving ineffective against this pest ; better 

 results were obtamed by collecting the insects in kerosene and water. 



The Pink Boll Worm. — Agric. News, Barbados, xvi, no. 406, 17th 

 November 1917, p. 362, 



The dispersion of Pectinophora gossypiella over 'widely separate areas 

 is not effected by the flight of the adult moth, nor by the transport by 

 the wind of larvae in loose cotton lint, but by the agency of man in 

 importing and distributing cotton seed or baled cotton without previous 

 inspection. In this connection may be cited the case mentioned by 

 Houston in the Scientific American for 4th August, of a cotton-seed 

 oil mill established in a tovTu on the borders of Mexico and the United 

 States, to which large quantities of infested seed are being moved ; 

 the emergence of moths from this, occurring as it does within a few 

 miles of the Texas cotton fields, cannot fail ultimately to establish 

 this pest in a new region. The infested area in the Laguna district of 

 Mexico is much larger than was at first supposed, and the distribution 

 of seed from this is increasing the area of infestation. These two cases 

 serve to emphasise still more strongly the importance of quarantine 

 measures. 



Boyd (A. J.). Cotton Cultivation in Queensland. — Queensland Agric. 

 Jl., Brisbane, viii. no. 4, October 1917, pp. 185-191. 



The worst insect pest of cotton in Queensland is the bollworm 

 {Heliothis obsoleta] which, however, o^ving to its preference for maize 

 as a food-plant can be controlled by the planting of trap-crops. The 

 best plan to adopt is that of leaving 5 rows vacant between every 

 25 rows of cotton, one of which should be planted as soon as possible 

 with an early-maturing variety of maize. As soon as the ear-silk 

 appears, examination should be made for the eggs of the moth, and 

 when all these have been found and removed, the plants may be cut 

 down and used for stock feeding. Follovvdng this, three more rows of 

 maize should be planted, or maize alternating vnth. cowpeas, in which 

 case the peas must be sown when the maize has appeared above ground. 

 By December these three rows should be silking, and the large number 

 of eggs to be found on them should be allowed to mature to prevent 

 the destruction of parasites on the eggs and larvae. When the whole 

 generation has been parasitised, the ears may be destroyed, and the 



