311 



buildings and timber used generally in construction work in 

 the West Indies. Other species are, however, sometimes found 

 in these situations, and it is of interest that not many yards 

 distant from canes badly infested with termites there stands 

 an old disused house the woodwork of which has been badly 

 injured by termites, but the only specimens which could be 

 obtained in the house were of a species quite distinct from 

 that present in the field. As the galleries in which the egg- 

 laying females have been found are within some lo or 12 inches 

 of the surface of the ground, it is likely that thorough cultivation 

 will be found a fairly efficient means of control, especially when 

 such cultivation is practised in connection with a careful rotation 

 of crops and the planting of a crop like cotton, which is not 

 subject to the attacks of these insects. 



It often happens that sugar-cane cuttings used for planting 

 are attacked in the field by termites, and it is known that more 

 than one species is concerned in such attacks. On this one 

 estate in St. Kitts, however, we have the only recorded occurrence 

 of termites attacking ripening canes, canes in which a con- 

 siderable amount of growth has taken place, which they mjure 

 by eating out the entire interior of the stems as the sugar begins 

 to form in the internodes. 



Cotton. 



After a lapse of many years, during which time there was 

 no cultivation of cotton in the West Indies as a whole, the culti- 

 vation of this crop was taken up very generally throughout 

 these small islands m 1902 and 1903. The Imperial Department 

 of Agriculture has offered valuable assistance in this direction. 

 Cotton growers have had to combat several insect pests, among 

 them the well-known cotton worm {Alabama argillacea Hiibn.). 

 There have also appeared several pests which are entireh' new 

 as pests, and in fact were new to science. The flower-bud maggot 

 [Contarinia gossypti Felt), the red maggot {l\>rricoudyla gossypii 

 Coquielett), and the leaf-blister mite {Eriophycs gossypii Banks) 

 being the most important of these, while the black scale {Saissciia 

 nigra Nietn.), which was known to occur on a variety of plants 

 throughout the West Indies, assumed serious proportions as 



