92 



nature of the damage occasioned by them, and the tracing out of the 

 main facts in the life histories in a large number of cases. Information 

 has been continuously supplied to officials and planters as to thenatnri- 

 of their insect pests and the more promising methods of treatment. 

 Many experiments liave been tried with a view to the adai)tation of 

 insecticides in use in other parts of the world to the requirements of 

 special crops under cultivation in India. Fourteen luimbers of the 

 Indian Museum Notes, comprised in three volumes, have been pub- 

 lished, and a number of special reports have also been sent out; one 

 on the locust of northwest India and one entitled Handbook of the 

 Silk Insects of India. Two preliminary lesson sheets for use in native 

 schools have also been prepared by the office. A thorough investiga- 

 tion of the insects attecting tlie tea plant is now in progress. The 

 funds appropriated for the support of entomological investigation have 

 varied from year to year; the oidy special grant for the purpose is one 

 of 5,000 rupees per annum from the government of India. This is paid 

 to the account of the Indian Museum, and forms a part of a general 

 fund which is distributed at the discretion of the trustees, partly for 

 the maintenance of the institution and partly for the support of the 

 work carried on in various departments, one of which includes economic 

 entomology. The work was at first looked upon in many quarters as 

 a matter of comparative insignificance, but Mr. Cotes informs me that 

 its importance is now very generally recognized and that strong repre- 

 sentations are being made in influential quarters, urging the desira- 

 bility of extending the scope of the work, and making it, like other 

 branches of research, an integral portion of the Agricultural Depart- 

 ment of the government. The work which has so far been done by Mr. 

 Cotes and his assistants has been admirable, and we know of no more 

 interesting publication upon entomology than the Indian Museum 

 Notes. 



SOUTH AFRIOA. 



The Agricultural Journal, the otficial organ of the Department of 

 Agriculture of the Cape Colony, has been paying a great deal of atten- 

 tion to economic entomology during the last four or five years. The 

 so-called Australian bug {Icerya purchasi), the grape-vine Phylloxera, 

 and the injurious locusts seemed to have roused the colonists to the 

 necessity for more or less investigation, and the Agricultural Depart- 

 ment has taken hold of the matter with some little energy. No dis- 

 tinctively official entomologist, however, was ever appointed. Pri- 

 vately Mr. S. D. Bairstow and one or two other colonists have made 

 certain investigations, and their correspondence with Miss Ormerod, 

 honorary consulting entomologist to the Royal Agricultural Society of 

 Great Britain, resulted in the publication of Miss Ormerod's little book 

 entitled Notes and Descriptions of a Few Injurious Farm and Fruit 

 Insects of South Africa, with Descriptions and Identifications of tlie 

 Insects by Oliver E. Jansen. Prior to the publication of this work 



