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" sets " for all and the control of the pest is at stake which means 

 everything to them. " Sets " issued to cultivators not supplying tho 

 Company would, of course, have to be paid for. 



Another point that may suggest itself is that the planting of any 

 field is dependent on the arrival of the water supply, and the cultivator 

 cannot tell until a few days before when he will plant out. Consequently 

 it may occur that prepared " sets " are held up for a week or two 

 before planting. The inversion of the sugars which takes place so 

 rapidly in the " 105 " cane does not affect the germinating capacity ; 

 the " sets " will survive for considerably longer than two weeks, so 

 that a slight delay in planting out need be no cause for alarm. 



Assuming, then, that the Sugar Company provided clean " sets " 

 and the Government laid down by law that, only such " sets " were 

 to be planted, the main control measure would be enforced. The 

 other measures, with the exception of No. 6, could also be included 

 in the law and their execution would not prove any hardship to the 

 cultivator except in so far as he would be deprived of the "trash" 

 for fuel. 



Recommendation No. 6 would not be easy to enforce, but it might 

 be effected by the judicial arrangement of the contracts entered into 

 by the Company with the cultivators. It would take at least two 

 years to carry out without imposing too great restrictions on the 

 cultivator and would need very careful working out. 



NATUKAL ENEMIES. 



Only two natural enemies have been found to be of any assistance 

 in the control : the rat and a fungus. 



(1) In every area inspected last winter I noticed that on heavily 

 infected canes a part of the leaf sheath immediately below the node 

 would be torn away and the parent cane revealed. These " windows," 

 so to speak, were always in exactly the same place, just below the node, 

 and no insects were ever found on the surface of the cane thus exposed 

 although obviously insects had been present. Many such " windows " 

 were found on a heavily infected cane, sometimes as many as 

 nine or ten. 



Whatever makes these windows must be feeding on the insects 

 because : 



(a) Canes not infected have no such " windows." 



(b) The " windows " are always in the same relative position on 

 the cane, i.e. immediately below the node where the insects invariably 

 congregate. If the animal wanted the gurn it would make the 

 windows immediately above the node. 



