MONTHLY NOTES ON GRUBS AND OTHER CANE PESTS. 31 
that ammonium sulphate robs the soil. In this he is in accord with the 
most up-to-date knowledge of fertilisers. He says that there is no ques- 
tion, but that this chemical brings about a bumper crop ; hence, a portion 
of all the available plant-foods are used up, and these must be renewed 
from time to time. For this purpose he used meatworks manure. He 
also returned to the soil all of the waste from the crop. No trash was 
burned. He accomplished this by relieving into every other row when 
the plant-crop was cut, and applied manure and cultivation in the free 
middles. The trash from the first ratoons was relieved into the middles 
which had been cultivated, and the alternate ones were broken up and 
fertilised. Finally, the trash from the second ratoons was left, and the 
whole thing ploughed in. He used this regular system of three crops 
before ploughing out, and says that late planting is the right thing for 
that class of soil. It is needless to say that he had no trouble from grubs. 
Then, too, results were apparent in the crops he took off, which were 
double or treble those of adjoining farms, and in one case I found by 
the mill records that he cut 43 tons per acre, when his neighbour across 
the road, on the same class of soil, cut 9 tons—the difference being due 
entirely to better cultural methods. 
THE QUESTION OF /EEDING-TREES. 
Mr. Hunter is also a firm believer in the destruction of feeding- 
trees, because he says the grubs move back as the scrub is felled. He 
advocates removing the serub and pasturing the land for half a mile 
back from all cane areas, using cane pest destruction funds to assist in 
this work. He said that the owners of the scrub would, of course, pay 
part of the cost, and the mills could make use of some of the wood to 
help out on the expense. Cost of felling and burning would be, approxi- 
mately, £5 per acre at this time. 
Mr. C. E. Jodrell, who is another pioneer of the Goondi district, 
also obliged me with some of his very valuable observations. He is one 
of the most extensive growers to-day, having come on to his farm, in 
the stumps, twenty-five years ago. In those early days the grubs often 
ate everything out, so it was the exception to get even a 15-ton erop. 
He told me that the beetles were then in hordes in the feeding-trees just 
behind his house; and that the flying foxes made havoe among them, 
so that the remains of the beetles were several inches deep on the ground 
in the morning. The broken parts of the grey-backs could be plainly 
seen in the excrement of the bats. 
I was interested to learn that there has been no trouble from grubs 
on this farm since the scrub was cut on the hills surrounding it, about 
eighteen years ago. 
Mr. Jodrell also owns a farm at Daraji, and he told me that he 
always had trouble from grubs on the part bordering the serub, but 
that there is no injury in the fields lying about half a mile away from 
these feeding-trees. 
