ENEMIES. 121 



numbers. In dealing with this pest, we should be content 

 with a patient and persistent course of ameliorating measures. 

 The well-known applications of lime and salt as insect 

 destroyers might be tried with hope of success." 



To destroy them utterly he says : 



" This can be accomplished by applications of fertilizers 

 obnoxious to the insect, dug broadcast into the soil. In 

 spreading the manure over a larger area we not only induce a 

 larger root surface, but we reduce the chances of every rootlet 

 being reached, and make grub life harder. 



"From constant communication with the Entomologist 

 for the Royal Agricultural Society of England, and through 

 experiments carefully conducted here, I have come to the 

 conclusion that rape cake, in which mustard seed forms a 

 considerable proportion, is a remedy as well as a valuable 

 manure, for I have found it is the only substance of the kind 

 that they cannot exist on. Castor and cocoanut cake they 

 seem thoroughly to enjoy." 



Recent issues of the Ceylon Government Gazette 

 contain a correspondence on this " grub " which 

 ravages the Coffee plantations of the island. The 

 principal, and in fact only important, document is 

 a lengthy report by Mr. R. McLachlan on the 

 subject. Some forty species of beetles were sub- 

 mitted to him, but special interest centred in twenty 

 of these, all or nearly all of which were allied to 

 the Melolontha vulgaris, or common European cock- 

 chafer. Mr. McLachlan assumes that no under- 

 growth of grass or other herbaceous plants is 

 allowed in the plantations, for the grubs of the 

 European cockchafer and its allies feed on the 



