186 Indian Economic Entomology. [Vol. I. 



fifteen inches deep by a foot wide was made in every alternate row of tea, and into 

 this the pruning leaves, Sfc, from round about were carefully brushed before 

 being set alight to. 



" Up to date not a trace of the blight is to be seen ; this time last year about 

 100 acres (or more) were completely ruined ; the tea is looking as healthy and nice, and 

 growth is as vigorous as though the plants had never been blighted. So successful 

 have we been so far in combating this destructive pest, that I am convinced now we 

 will not be troubled with it at all this season, and that we will make our 8 to 

 85 maunds an acre against a miserable 4 maunds an acre last season ! 



" The theory of letting tea run has been tried without the slightest signs of doing 

 any good, for the simple reason the bushes can't and won't run ! Bushes that I left 

 alone during the three months (middle of April to middle of July) were, if anything, 

 smaller at end of this period than at commencement of it, because not a vestige of 

 growth had been made during the whole of this time, and the long healthy shoots 

 (chiefly in the very centre, therefore the tallest part of the bush) died gradually down 

 to the parent stem. I have measured some of these dead shoots occasionally and have 

 found them in some cases to be over 18'' long. 



" The shoots that I have found to so die down have always been of this year's 

 growth, viz., those shooting out from just below last cold-weather pruning. 



" Now, as blighted patches here have been found to have a large number of the 

 young of the Bug (which by the bye are in appearance like red ants, with two feelers 

 apiece, and are wingless) in all stages of development (from the size of a pin's point 

 to almost a full-grown bug) on nearly every bush, and as these young live right away 

 inside the bushes and feed on only the ' minute shoots at the leaf-axils,' the theory 

 of pruning is to give the bush pruned a severe che6k and so stop for a time the rising 

 of sap (and, of course, the production of the 'minute shoots at leaf- axils') in the 

 hopes this brief period of the bushes dormancy will be sufficient to kill the young bugs 

 of starvation. Whether we have succeeded or not in destroying any young ones by 

 starvation it would be difficult to say, but that pruning is doing good is quite certain. 

 Three days ago I got 25 maunds of leaf off the piece of tea that was pruned (5 acres 

 in June last) in July ; previous to pruning, this bit of tea was completely ' shut up ' 

 for about 2| months. 



" Of course we know it is only right to cultivate and keep extra clean any tea that 

 may be ' hanging fire ' or doing at all badly, I reversed the order of things with a bit 

 of about 5 acres of very badly blighted tea : I allowed it to go into ' howling jungle,' 

 the bushes were out of sight for over a month ; strange to say when I hoed and cleaned 

 it up after a fortnight, I found the bushes quite recovered and with a very decent 

 flush on them. The block of tea of which these 5 acres are a part presents a peculiar 

 spectacle with its small piece of bright green healthy tea surrounded by dismal-looking 

 acres and acres. 



" Some weeks ago I tried sprinkling kerosine and water (j of k. to f of w.) over a 

 piece (about 2 acres) of tea : on two occasions the day the mixture was squirted I found a 

 young dead mosquito, evidently killed by the oil having reached them. I will with 

 pleasure report results of all experiments to you. 



" I forgot whether I have mentioned to you the fact of my having found mosquito 

 eggs on the lower and seed-bearing branches more frequently than I have come across 

 them on any other parts of the bush : always the old leaves have 1 found covered with 

 eggs and never have I seen an egg on a young shoot. I have more than once found 

 eggs on the tea seed itself. To give you some idea of the number of eggs there are 

 knocking about I'll just mention: — I ripped off from a bu?h near the bungalow all 

 the leaves with eggs on them : on counting the leaves I found I had 1,741. Some of 



