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A NEW WEST INDIAN SUGAR-CANE ENEMY. 
We have received from gentlemen in Trinidad and Barbados speci- 
mens of a Scolytid beetle— Xyleborus piceus Zimm.=X. perforans Woll.= 
X. affinis Kich.—which is said to do great damage to the growing crop of 
sugar-cane upon these islands. We have received but few particulars 
as to the method of work of this insect, although canes which have been 
sent in have been badly riddled by its minute burrows and Mr. F. Car- 
mody, Government Chemist at Port of Spain, informs us that the healthy 
growing canes are attacked. Through Dr. W. A. Culpeper, of Bridge- 
town, Barbados, we learn that the specimens have been referred to Miss 
Ormerod, who accurately determined them and suggested the possibil-. 
ity of applying a soft-soap wash and kerosene emulsion to the canes. 
This method it seems to us will be hardly practicable, although it would 
undoubtedly be efficacious if it could be applied economically. This 
insect occurs in this country, boring into many different trees and al- 
ways perferring diseased or dying wood. In the absence of definite 
information it seems to us that in the West Indies the sugar-cane feed- 
ing habit has been acquired through the oviposition of the beetles upon 
the more or less moribund cut ends of the canes sometime after harvest, 
the larve subsequently perhaps working into the young sprouts. We 
look for the best remedy in the line of trapping the insects in cane trash 
which should be displayed at the proper time and subsequently burned. 
Fuller information, however, is expected later and we promise a more 
definite article in the near future. The subject is one of considerable 
interest on account of the great value of the sugar industry in some of 
our southern States. 
THE HOP LOUSE IN THE EXTREME NORTHWEST. 
We have had considerable to say in these pages concerning the pres- 
ence of Phorodon humuli in the hop fields of Oregon and Washington 
during the past season. As a general thing our recommendations have 
been followed, and wherever the kerosene emulsion has been properly 
made and carefully applied it has been successful. The Entomologist 
of the Oregon Experiment Station, Mr. F. L..Washburn, has used it 
with success, and his correspondents, with very few exceptions, are 
pleased with the treatment. Some discredit has been cast upon the 
mixture by certain growers, and one firm interested in the sale of quas- 
sia chips has naturally given the preference to the quassia mixture, the 
only advantage of which is in use late in the season, when the burrs 
are formed. The kerosene emulsion should be used earlier, as it is apt 
to induce moldiness of the burr. 
Early the present spring specimens of the wingless plant-louse were 
found in the ground of hop fields and sent to the secretary of the State 
board of horticulture of Washington, who forwarded them to us under 
the supposition that they might prove to be some form of the Hop Louse. 
qa eee ee 
