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sites as a control of pests required a more extended scientific 

 investigation than had hitherto been accorded to it. Where arti- 

 ficial methods could be effectively employed, nothing was safer, 

 but in situations where the pest had entrenched itself beyond 

 the reach of insecticides or cultural methods, as for instance 

 the Gipsy moth in the forests and woodlands of Massachusetts 

 and the New England states, or where for other reasons artificial 

 methods could not be employed, then the natural enemies must 

 be brought into play as a check. The point was that artificial 

 methods were certain in their action, and could be used quickly 

 again and again, until satisfaction was obtained, whilst with 

 parasites it was necessary to wait until their season came round, 

 and it usually took time to bring about a check. 



W. HoEY stated that he spoke, not as an entomologist, but 

 as an administrator interested in Indian agriculture. Sugar cane 

 was widely grown in India, and was planted on the best soil and 

 manured. It was liable to attack by pests. In one province 

 there was an immense tract of land of rich, moist soil, all over which 

 were to be found stone sugar mills, many of them inscribed with 

 dates showing that hundreds of years ago they must have been 

 in use. Now these were idle, and the whole of this tract was 

 overrun with a wild growth of Kans, a robust, cane-like, reedy- 

 looking plant, with roots extending to great depth. This had 

 been described by some as Sacharum spontaneuni. Anyway, it 

 bore a resemblance to sugar cane, though but of comparatively 

 thin stalk, and it had been supposed that it was originally sugar 

 cane, and had degenerated to a wild state. This might have 

 happened when in some remote time the devastation of war or 

 pestilence had depopulated the region. Nothing could eradicate 

 this weedy growth, and a pest which would destroy it would be a 

 public benefactor. If this were a form of sugar cane, how did 

 it flourish as a wild growth, unattacked, as far as had been 

 observed, by pests ? Was it possible that the high cultivation 

 to which sugar cane was subjected as a crop rendered it liable to 

 the attacks of pests ? Did sugar cane, allowed to grow in less 

 carefully selected or unprotected surroundings, prove immune 

 to similar pests ? Inquiries on such lines as these might lead to 

 fruitful results. 



R. Newstead made some further remarks, touching on the 



