The soap in this solution is double the amount used in the normal 

 solution in order to increase the wetting power. 



" Sets " immersed take up a darkish green hue and when on emer- 

 gence they cease to have this hue it is time the solution should be 

 reinforced. The solution will last for an hour to an hour and a half if 

 it is constantly in use without the addition of further stock solution. 

 At the present price of paraffin the cost of treatment comes to about 

 P.T. 100 per feddan, including the cost of extra labour. This is rather 

 expensive, but as the value of a feddan of sugar cane varies from 

 L.E. 60 to L.E. 80, it is not more than an insurance of 1^ per cent and 

 the cultivators would get this back, and considerably more, in the 

 increased yield per feddan. 



The chief objection to the use of paraffin emulsion is the difficulty 

 of preparing it ; unless it is correctly made up it is useless. Suggestions 

 for surmounting this difficulty will be found on a later page. It is 

 hoped that another solution may be found which will remove this 

 obstacle, but for the present no success has been met with. 



It is important to remember that immersion is of no avail unless 

 the " sets " are completely stripped of all leaf sheaths. The insects lie 

 hidden beneath the leaf sheaths and no solution will penetrate there 

 and kill the insects. The leaf sheaths, then, must all be removed, 

 and this process must be not carried out on the field to be planted out. 

 The stripping should be done in the field of origin of the cane and the 

 " sets " brought to the field of planting, dipped, and sown. It is 

 needless to point out the danger of stripping the canes of their infected 

 leaf sheaths on the field about to be planted. 



I cannot lay too much stress on the importance of the planting 

 of clean " sets." Once we start with clean cane in our fields it should 

 not be so difficult to keep it clean and the remaining suggestions are 

 subsidiary and designed for this purpose. The crux of the whole problem, 

 however, lies in the sowing of clean " sets." 



2. CANE SHOULD ONLY BE GROWN FOR TWO YEARS ON ANY FIELD 

 UNTIL THE PEST IS UNDER CONTROL. 



The expense of cultivation makes it a great temptation for the 

 cultivator to leave his cane in and ratoon three or four times, the 

 limiting factor being the reduced yield. In Barbadoes sugar cane 

 is a one-year crop and in the West Indies generally ratooning does 

 not usually take place more than once or twice. It is true there are 

 other reasons for this, but with the severity of our present outbreak 

 it is high time that ratooning should be limited to once and certainly 

 never more than twice. The yield steadily deteriorates as the 

 years proceed and the insect attack steadily increases. How far the 

 reduction in yield is directly attributable to the insect attack it is 



