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parasites, said that be only bred them from ripe guavas late in the season ; 

 and one of the nursery men informed me that for the last eight years all the- 

 guavas in the Bangalore district had been destroyed by fruit-fly maggots. 

 Most of the mangoes that ripened on the trees or fell to the ground were 

 infested with fruit-fly maggots, and quite a number that we had on the hotel 

 tables were more or less infested. 



The Mango-leaf Hopper (Idiocerus, sp.) is very abundant in all the 

 gardens ; they make quite a distinct sound as they fly against the leaves. 

 There appears to be several species. There is a small Hesperid butterfly 

 that breeds in the pomegranate, and an unknown species damages the Jack 

 fruit. There is a new orchard, laid out on Australian plans, being cultivated 

 by Mr. M. J. Paul, of Mildura, who has formed the Mysore Fruit Company. 

 They have 40 acres of grapes and other fruits under crop, and can find a 

 ready sale for a great deal more than they can yet grow, so they propose to 

 plant a large area, and go in for fiuit drying. Mr. Paul, however, was not 

 considering the numerous insect pests or the fruit-eating crows which are 

 attacking the grapes already. Returning to Madras I left for Tuticorin, 

 en route for Colombo, Ceylon. I reached the former place at 6 p.m. the 

 following day, and after getting on board ship reached Colombo early on the 

 morning of 27th June. 



At Colombo I called on the Secretary of the Agricultural Society, and 

 finding him out, went on to Mr. K. Baniber's laboratory. Mr. Bamber, 

 chemist to the Agiicultural Branch of the Government, was just leaving for 

 the Malay States ; he advised me to go up to the Royal Botanic Gardens at 

 Peradenyia by the afternoon train. This I did, reaching the rest-house at 

 7 p.m. Next morning found the officers of the garden, and also Mr. West, 

 Acting Entomologist during Mr. E. E. Green's absence. We experimented 

 with different oils in the gardens, and captured a great number of Dacus, 

 sp., though the fruit season was practically over. In going through the 

 collections, I found a series of a very curious fruit-fly, genus Ceratites, allied 

 to our Mediterranean fruit-fly, but evidently closely allied, if not identical 

 with, the species described some years ago in the Indian Museum Notes, by 

 Coates, as the Beluchistan Melon Fly. Accompanied by Mr. West, I visited 

 the great tea district of Bandarawella, and examined a pest, one of the Cup- 

 moths or Slug-moths, that was damaging the tea in several plantations. Here 

 also we saw the Shot-hole Borer, probably one of the worst tea pests in Ceylon. 

 This is Rhizobiusfornicator, which bores into the twigs and lays her eggs in 

 the galleries, where the larva? hatch and feed, causing the branches to die 

 and snap off when touched. No effectual method is known of checking it, 

 except pruning hard and burning everything. As the planters turn all the 

 cuttings into plant-food by burying them in the soil between the rows and 

 letting them rot, it would be very difficult to get them to adopt this method. 



The plantations are in many places planted with shade trees ; among them 

 are large quantities of our Silky Oak (Grevillia robusta). These are kept down 

 by topping every season, and stripping all the leaves off the trees : they are 

 scattered over the surface between the rows of tea plants to keep the soil damp. 

 Large quantities of dadapes (Erythrina lithosperma) are used in the same 

 manner, and as they give more shade and the foliage is renewed more quickly,, 

 they are coming into general favour. Tea is planted either with rooted shrubs or 

 with stake planting. If the latter method the seeds are first germinated, and 

 two are placed in a prepared hole beside a stake ; if both grow the second is 

 pulled up, and used to replant holes where they have missed. Tea is a very 

 hardy plant, growing right up the rugged mountain tides in clefts in the 



