232 THE ENEMIES OF COFFEE :—WHITE GRUB. 
mandibles are present on these creatures. Mandibles 
are often prehensile. Look, for instance, at the power- 
ful ones of the crab and other crustaceans, and although 
nature has admirably adapted the organs of all creatures 
for their purposes, yet we have numerous organizations 
that are as yet a riddle to us. For example, why do 
many crustaceans feed on decaying food and are yet. 
provided with hard chitinous bars in their alimentary 
system to masticate food. 
As for the grub being a friend of the planter, I said 
it was so in a certain sense, and never thought for a. 
moment that anybody would try to encourage it. Just 
as a watch is a useful instrument to denote time, so the 
grub is an index to point out to the planter that there 
isa something radically wrong. Ifsuch soil be attended 
to there will be no need to catch the cockchafers unless 
indeed you do it by the million as suggested and then 
dry them as a feeding material for stock kept here or 
export them as is done from Germany for the same 
purpose. It is well known that dried cockchafers form 
an. excellent food material. Here is a comparison with 
rape cake and coconut cake, estimated by Dr. Emil 
Wolff of Hohenheim :— 
Coconut Rape Dried 
Cake. Cake.  Cock- 
chafers.. 
Water a ei Be us IAF | 15:0 13°5 
Ash oH Lt Pa ip 74 67 
Organic matter... ear aii Oi 7a) 
Albumenoids ne Ls At Oe at 30°3 555 
Crude Fibre vee ae WAG 13°8 13°9 
Extractive matter ; free 
from Nitrogen ... 34-4 23°8 
Fat &e. eee a ln) fo) 95 10°9 
ae Houmiens!\* Eo 24°2 38°0 
Nouristns } Carbohydrates 303 183 9 — 
Pere at le Sak, eatin 
Comparative value : ) 
coconut cake being unity § ae a mae 
That the beetles contain a considerable proportion of 
phosphates there is no doubt, and we need not be sur- 
prised when we know that they feed on leaves which 
contain the life blood of the plant. If we could not 
utilize the creatures caught on the large scale as food 
material they might be turned to account as manure, or 
the grubs would do very well to feed pigs, or perhaps the 
beetles might be of use to extract a useful coloring 
matter therefrom. For any such purposes it might be 
well to declare war against them. 
J never advocated the grub as a suitable companion. 
for the coffee tree, but feel convinced, in spite of what 
