48 Indian Museum Notes. Vol. Ill* 



the way the sulphur was applied, the state of the bushes before, and the immediate 

 result after application. It will be interesting to compare this report with subsequent 

 ones which I will send from time to time in the same form." 



Abstract of Diary. — " The treatment was begun on 7th March 1892 and completed 

 on 21st or the same month. Sixty acres were treated at the rate of one hundred- 

 weight to the acre, which gave a very sufficient sprinkling, sixty-seven acres at the 

 rate of two hundredweight to three acres, while eleven acres were treated with a 

 mixture of one part of sulphur to two parts of sifted lime. The tea that was treated was 

 of the ' ; China " variety. The bushes were rather below than above the medium size. 

 They had not put out much growth owing to the drought. Red spider had appeared, and 

 careful examination showed that it was present in many places. The application of 

 the sulphur was made through markin cloth by simply shaking the bag over the bush. 

 "Where water was available the bushes were first splashed with water, but over a consi- 

 derable area the application was made without previous watering. The sulphur adhered 

 fairly well even on dry bushes, in spite of the high wind which blew both at the time 

 that the treatment was gcing on and afterwards. The average cost of applying the 

 sulphur was about Kl-4-9 per acre, includiugthe purchase both of the cloth and also of 

 the Tculcies for watering. As far as could be made out. provided the sun teas strong. 

 bushes powdered in the morning had all the red spider killed by evening. After su.- 

 phuring the bushes we:e examined daily, but the only bushes on which red spider 

 could be found were one or two, which had been treated with the mixture o: lime and 

 sulphur; even here, however, very careful search was required to find live insects. On 

 16th April it was noted that red spider was to Le seen in all parts of the garden except 

 the sulphured area, while neighbouring gardens were very much affected by it. The 

 sulphured area was the first pruned and, should, under ordinary circumstances, have been 

 the most affected. With regard to the effect of the sulphur treatment on mosquito 

 blight, some mosquito blight insects were caught and experimented with on 23rd 

 March. "When sulphur was powdered on to them it adhered to the hairy pans of the 1 ody 

 and legs to a considerable extent, but the insects did not die at once, though putting 

 them in this state under a glass in the sun was fatal to them. After applying the 

 sulphur all signs of blight disappeared, careful search not revealing a single puncured 

 shoot. It must be added that little blight could be found on other parts of the garden 

 but the flats which had lean treated with sulphur were always the ones to he first 

 attacked/' 



6th May 1892. — " I have no objection whatever to Mr. Cotes making use of any 

 information he may have derived from my writings, and will be glad to supply him 

 with further notes from time to time. I strongly object however to* trying Mr. Cotes' 

 suggestion about sulphur soap instead of the pure sulphur (except as a supplementary 

 experiment) for this reason. 



The action of sulphur against red spider is low proved beyond doubt, and requires 

 no comment. It also seems to have killed off the blight insect ; and if this is a facl it 

 would be a vast pity to operate against the one disease without the other in future, for 

 the sulphur soap wash however efficacious ayainst spider could not be expected to do 

 much harm to a winged insect like bright. Moreover, the wash requires special appara- 

 tus for application, and the purchase of such in sufficient quantity to go over hundreds 

 of acres quickly would be prohibitive. That bright has actually been killed cut over 

 the sulphured area seems to me a certainty. On the 14ih March I wrote to you 

 saving that my original plan of distributing the sulphur had beeu changed owing to a 

 considerable amount of blight being noticeable. This is proof that blight teas there ; 

 it is equally certain there is none now, and the accompanying extract irom my Diary 

 will prove that during the past ten years 1 have invariably reported blight not later than 

 the \»eek eniing the 23rd April, and almost always iu the same spot, which this year is 

 free. 1 am not yet ia a position to ask you for a further and larger supply of sulphur 



