4S Indian Museum Notes. [ Vol. Ill* 



the way tlie snlpliur was applied, tlie 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 of 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 sulpiiur 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 botli at the time 

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

 sulphur was about El-4-9 per acre, including the purchase Hoth of the cloth and also of 

 the kulcies for watering. As far as could be made out, provided the sun loas strong, 

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

 phuring the bushes were examined daiij', but the only bushes on which red spider 

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

 sulphur; even here, however, ver3' careful search was required to find live insects. On 

 16th April it was noted that red spider was to be 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 parts of the body 

 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, cart-ful search not revealing a single punctured 

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

 but the flats which had been treated with sulphur were always the ones to be first 

 attacked.'' 



6th May 1892.— *' I have no objection whatever to Mr. Cotes making use of an}' 

 mformation 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' 

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

 experiment) for this reason. 



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

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

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

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

 much harm to a winged insect like blight. 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 blight has actually been killed out over 

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

 saying that my original plan of distributing the sulphur had been changed owing to a 

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

 it IS equally certain there is none noio, and the accompanying extract from my Diary 

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

 the week ending the 23rd April, and almost always iu the same spot, which this year is 

 free. I am not yet in a position to ask you for a further and larger bup^ily of sulphur 



