XXXvill 



crop of canes on tlie field has been introduced during the last five years, and 

 tliere are notes also of the presence of borers in fields which have been burnt 

 off whilst in another locality close Ijy, where this treatment was not applied, 

 the canes throve, borers were absent, and auts were present in myriads. 



"I will now give some of these notes from the documents sent over; 

 and first as to the woriiing of the Pruceras larva from the Uitolugt 

 plantation, the writer says: — 



" ' I have omitted to remark that the first-mentioned borer (the 

 Procenis larva) weaves no cocoon about itself before it enters its second 

 state ; but about it can be found a very fine silken web, almost invisible to 

 the naked eye, and that it does not eat out much of the heart of the cane, 

 but that when it goes into the cane it eats round the joint (the place 

 where its first hole into the cane is almost always to be found) in such a 

 way that the circulation of the sap of the plant is interrupted, after which 

 the top of the cane (or whole of the part of it above this hole) decays, and 

 finally falls off, while the part of the cane under the hole of the insect, or 

 between the hole and the ground, throws out shoots from every eye, and 

 the plant is ruined. The first indication of this borer being present is 

 wlien the centre leaves of the plant begin to turn white ; but any one 

 searching for the animal iu a cane stool that has already turned that colour 

 will invariably be disappointed, find the mischief to the plant done, and 

 the insect gone. It generally attacks the best working cane of a stool, 

 a good healthy cane being, as a rule, softer than one partially stunted, and 

 consequently more easily bored into.' 



" The report of the Managers of the Great Diamond Plantation gives 

 some good notes, iu few words, of the general characteristic of the attacks 

 of the three chief cane-borers : — 



" ' 1st. The lepidopterous larva (presumably of the Procerus) has only 

 been found hitherto in growing canes and above ground. 



" ' 2ndly. The larva oHhe Calaiidra jniliiuiruiii is found in rotten canes ; 

 cane tops after they are old, though still growing ; and in the stools below 

 ground. The cocoons in which these insects lie in the chrysalis state are 

 neai'ly always to be found at the extremity of the cane top deepest iu the 

 ground. 



" ' 3rdly. The larva of the Calandra sncchari, which is distinguishable 

 from the C. palinariun by its smaller size and colouring of dark brown and 

 yellow ochre, instead of black, but similar in habits, and in forming an 

 intricate and strong cocoon woven of fibre to protect it whilst in the pupal 

 state.' 



" With regard to the cutting out of infebted cano, and the value in 

 product paying expenses, it is noted ; — 



" ' Besides the burning alluded to previously, a gang of men has been 

 employed culling out such young canes as bhow bigns of the attack of the 



