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of these caterpillars. The Colton Aphis (Aphis gossypii), another cosmopolitan 

 pest, is one of the worst enemies of the cotton-plant and difficult to deal with. 

 There is a leaf-blister mite forming galls upon the leaves, and Lecanium nigrum 

 is a common scale upon cotton. The Red Maggot lives in clusters under the 

 bark of the stems of the plant, which, however, has been first damaged with 

 a bacterial disease known as " Brown Elbow," so that it may possibly not be a 

 pest in the strict sense of the word, though always found in damaged t'ssue ; 

 it is the larva of a Cecidomyia fly (Porricondyla (JSpidoni*) gossypii], or gall-gnat. 

 There is a second Cecidomyia which has recently appeared in Antigua. 

 This species lays her eggs in the flowers of the cotton-plant, causing them to 

 wilt and drop off, presumably from the larvae feeding upon the pollen. 

 There is also a form of Anthracnose, which sometimes does a great deal of 

 harm to the cotton bolls. 



In British Guiana a considerable quantity of swamp rice is grown. Last 

 year 30,000 tons of rice were harvested, much of which were exported to the 

 other West Indian islands. 



At the Conference very little information was available of the commercial 

 value of West Indian rubber. In the President's address he stated that 

 thirty-three estates were planting rubber, and it was estimated that 300,000 

 trees had been planted ; that Castilloa scrap rubber brought 3s. 2d. per Ib. 

 and sheet rubber 4s. 3d., but that grown in Tobago realised up to 5s. 

 Ten of the estates were planting Para rubber (Hevea) and Lagos silk rubber 

 (Funtumia). In Demerara they are planting both Hevea brasiliensis and 

 Castilloa elastica. In Jamaica I found them planting Castilloa as shade 

 trees for the cacoa, and in St. Lucia and Dominica it is used in the same way. 



At the island of Montserrat, famous for its lime-juice all over the world, 

 one company has a plantation of 2,000 acres of limes, where they manufacture 

 lime-juice and citrate of lime. Lime products to the value of 6,883 were 

 exported last year. Dominica also does a very large trade in lime-juice. 



Chionaspis citri is a very destructive scale insect on the citrus trees in 

 these islands ; and as lime-trees are very thorny, and are planted close 

 together on often very rough land, the growers say that it is impossible to 

 either spray or fumigate at a profit. The question of parasites to destroy 

 this and other scale insects was brought up at the Conference, and many 

 questions were asked. One planter has a remarkable remedy or preventative 

 for this scale, which is to plant Bengal beans in his orchard, and allow them 

 to climb all over the tops of the trees; and, according to the planter, no 

 scale could be found on these trees. But other delegates doubted very much 

 whether there would be any fruit on trees grown under such conditions. 



The only island where tobacco is grown to any extent is Jamaica. Last 

 year 21,809 worth ot tobacco leaf and cigars was exported; but there is 

 also a very large local consumption. One of the sights of the Jamestown 

 market is the tobacco stalls, where great balls of tobacco, made up into rope- 

 like cables, are sold to the negroes. 



^ liile the Conference was at work we visited a number of estates, and 

 after its business was concluded, and the delegates had returned home, I 

 made several trips over the island with Mr. Bovell, the Director of Agricul- 

 ture, and Mr. Ballou, the entomologist. All the work in the West Indies is 

 done by negroes, men and women working alike in the fields and plantations,, 

 while on the mainland, at Demerara, all the labour is done by imported 

 Indian coolies; and there are 71,000 on the plantations, and 63,000 at other 

 work. 



