4.00 Timehrr. 
probably an allied species (Phyllotreta nemorum) which often ravages 
turnip and such like crops. Though paraffin is very useful we have - 
found arsenate of lead completely routed these pests. It is wise to keep 
all young nursery stock as moist as possible as flea beetles love to get to 
work in bright sunshine. 
We haye noticed these flea beetles in the fields in large quantities 
on the plant known locally as “burra burra pimpler “—a species of 
Solanum, so possibly this is one of its natural food supplies. 
The troubles of the lime-grower are not by any means ended yet. 
Possibly there is a Cushi ant’s nest in the neighbourhood—then woe 
betide the luckless planter if he does not destroy this voracious pest by 
the judicious use of carbon bisulphide, otherwise he will wake up one 
fine morning to find that a large number of his trees has been completely 
defoliated by these intensely interesting, but terribly destructive, insects. 
But all these troubles are mere trifles when compared with the 
eunming troubles of citric plants growing on heavy non-porous clays. 
Whether or not there is the specific fungus, Fusarium limonis, which is 
responsible for so much damage to the orange and lemon trees of Florida 
and Italy, the damage caused by gummosis arising from physiological 
causes is quite sufficient to drive the lime grower to despair. Exudations 
of gum burst through the bark in patches near the base of the tree as a 
rule, and more often than not the tissues are killed, bark, cambium and 
wood being affected. When the disease destroys the cambium around 
the tree it is girdled, and, of course, death ensues. 
Often the gumming takes place out of sight at the base below the 
soil, and as gummosis must be dealt with as quickly as possible, a bright 
look-out and search for this disease has to be continually kept. Hence 
if the trees begin to turn yellow and there is a certain amount of dying 
back of the smaller branches, it is wise to suspect some gumming trouble. 
It will be seen that growing limes on a heavy clay soil is not by any 
means so simple a matter as many might suppose, and that the “common 
lime,” as it is generally referred to in this colony, can teach us many a 
useful lesson, not the least of which is contained in one of Dickens's 
letters, where he writes: ‘‘ Whatever the right hand finds to do must be 
done with the heart in it.” 
The anxieties are many and the work is arduous and often dis- 
appointing, but it can and has been done, in spite of cast-iron dogmas 
which state the contrary. Furthermore, the feeling that one has to 
conquer so unkind and unsuitable a soil saves the lime-grower from 
sinking into that state of amind which often accompanies work which 
settles down into a monotonous routine. Too often many planters “ lose 
their powers of vision like horses who turn mills in the dark,” when 
they allow routine’s deadly grip to reach them. 
