20 MONTHLY NOTES ON GRUBS AND OTHER CANE PESTS. 
Very little cane in this district is burned before cutting—last season 
only about 5,000 out of 130,000 tons, but the trash is largely burned 
afterwards, and is not conserved for humus. It appears to be the general 
custom to take off only one ratoon crop and to plough this out and plant 
cane again immediately. 
The burning of trash has evidently had a deterrent effect upon the 
beetle borers, for they are by no means a serious pest in the district. 
Even on the farm of Mr. Combo, near Hawkin’s Creek, most of the grubs 
were right down on the butts, and it was very hard to discover any of 
the damage without first cutting cane. 
Mr. W. Walker, who has been connected with the industry for the 
past forty years at Macknade, gave me a number of his interesting 
observations. 
In the days of the kanaka, he said, the trash was removed to every 
third row, and he found that the grubs were always present in these 
trash rows and that the cane in these rows suffered during dry weather. 
This may evidently be explained by, that the grubs, which naturally 
develop under trash, are forced down into the soil by drought, and are 
then compelled to feed upon the cane roots. 
At another time Mr. Walker observed tlat the beetles were attracted 
to the lights of the quarters, and later on, when the grubs began to do 
damage, it was worst in the cane bordering these buildings, the beetles 
evidently going back from the light to the cane to lay their eggs. He 
also noticed that the beetle went with the wind from a fig-tree which 
stood in the field, and the cane was usually considerably more infested on 
that side. 
Regarding the bettle-borer, Mr. Walker informed me that they were 
first seen there nine years ago, and that they must have come from plants 
received from New Guinea. The moth-borer, however, which is a native 
insect, he said was very troublesome as far back as 1889. This insect, 
which is well controlled by parasites, has done little injury in the district 
in recent years. 
Mr. W. Arthur, who is considered one of the best agriculturists of 
the district, once suffered severely from grubs, but not for the last five 
or six years. He uses green crops, which he ploughs in preparatory to 
early planting. His soil is clay loam and rather heavy, but he keeps it 
in good tilth by conserving his trash, of which none is burned. The 
single crop of ratoons is volunteered, and the double trash worked into 
the soil with a green crop before planting another series of cane. Mr. 
Arthur cultivates the plant crop well, and applies about 5 ewt. of 
meatworks manure to the acre. It is his intention to use sulphate of 
ammonia on his ratoons during December, if it can be procured. I 
noticed that his headlands and fence rows were clean, a factor important 
in the control of rats and other vermin. 
Evidently the immunity from losses by grubs on this farm is due 
