The Tea insects of India, ^^ 



burnt) a drain fifteen inches deep by a foot wide was made in every alternate row of tea, 

 and into this the pruning leaves, Sfo., 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 hi>d never been blighted. So successful have 

 We been so far in combnting 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 8i 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 tvorCt 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-axiles,' the theory of pruning is to give 

 the bush pruned a severe check and so stop for a time the rising of sap (and, of course, 

 the production of the 'minute shoots at leaf-axiles') in the hopes this brief period of the 

 bushes' dormancy will be suiEcient 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 2h 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 five 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 five 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 (i of k. tof 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." 



For accounts of other metliods of dealing with the insects, reference 

 should be made to Bamber's Hand-book, pages 247 and 248; 



Helopeltis antonii. Sign. This species was originally described 

 from Ceylon, where it was afterwards complained of as attacking both 

 cacao and cinchona. It has since been referred to as attacking tea 

 in Ceylon. It remains to be ascertained, however, to what extent the 

 Helopeltis which is found upon Ceylon tea bushes is distinct from the 

 insect referred to above under the name of Helopeltis theivora. 



D 



