No. 3J Sugarcane. 173 



discovered, it is not certain what their appearance is, but they are 

 probably white, and laid as described above. The eggs with the 

 leaves on which they are laid should be placed in kerosine oil tins 

 or some other unperforated vessel (a basket is not a good thing to 

 use, as the eggs may get rubbed off the leaves, fall through the holes 

 in the basket and ultimately hatch in the cane field, quickly finding 

 their way on to the canes), the leaves being burnt or fed to cattle. 

 The rows of canes should be carefully searched for eggs once a week 

 until no more eggs are found. Later on all diseased canes should 

 be cut out close to the bottom of each near the ground, such canes 

 being destroyed and not allowed to remain on the field. If left 

 where cut, the caterpillars will crawl out and attack a neighbouring 

 growing cane. If the canes are not cut low down, the larvae may be 

 in the piece of the cane remaining uncut and so escape. A few 

 affected canes can be at once detected if the borer is of sufficient age 

 by the presence of the "dead heart." If the larva is very young the 

 cane will not show a " dead heart " at this early stage of its existence. 

 If the " dead hearts " are carefully removed week by week so long 

 as any are to be found, together with the eggs, the borer will be 

 entirely eradicated. When the canes grow large it is almost hopeless 

 owing to the size of the canes, their numerous and large leaves, and 

 the density of the fields, to search for either eggs or caterpillars, 

 but if care be taken when the cane is young to eradicate the insect t 

 there should be no borers left when the cane grows large. In one 

 field of u Burali " cane, which is ;a small variety, at Seeraha, I found 

 many bored canes, but on cutting these out I found no borers what, 

 ever at any stage. The reason appears to be this. The cane is 

 planted (sown) in trenches, the earth from the trenches being heaped 

 up on each side. When the trenches are filled up after the cane 

 has grown to a foot or so in height, the earth covers the stems of the 

 cane above the hole in the cane made by the borer for breathing 

 purposes, and the borer is killed in the cane. It might be advan- 

 tageous to level off the fields by filling up the trenches at as early a 

 date as possible, so killing any borers there may be in the canes • 

 but this would be unnecessary if all the eggs have been previously 

 collected and destroyed and all " dead hearts" cut out. In old and 

 large cane if " dead hearts " are searched for and found, it is not 

 necessary to cut out the stems close to the ground, thereby wasting- 

 several feet of sound cane, but the cane should be cut within eight 

 inches or a foot of its growing point. The cane being at this stage 

 very large and thick, the borer will be found to have penetrated 

 down the stalk but a short distance. There is no loss to tho 



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