3o6 



"referred to were hatched out of their eggs. So far, then, I con- 

 sider my attempts to grow Sea Island Cotton here successfully a 

 failure. 



Egyptian Cotton. — These plants have done better than the Sea 

 Island and have not suffered, up to the present rime, from the at- 

 tacks of worm or grub. Given dry weather about the time the 

 crop is ready to be gathered, other things being equal, I should 

 imagine they would yield fair results. 



The Upland Cotton plants look healthiest of all, but I am sorry to 

 say they, like the Sea Island Cotton plants, are being attacked by 

 the worm or grub to a small extent only, however. 



The rains during the past month have been very heavy and 

 therefore inimical to the successful growing of cotton. Until the 

 rain came I could not detect that the plants were being attacked in 

 the manner above indicated. 



I am now arranging the planting out of further seeds so as to 

 get a crop somewhere about the months of February and March — ■ 

 months during which, as a rule, wc have very little rain here. 

 Until this is done the question of the suitability of this locality for 

 growing cotton cannot be satisfactorily settled. 



I have, etc., 



D. C. NEAVE. 



Of the samples sent by Mr. NEAVE the best is the Upland Cot- 

 ton which is clean, white and of moderate staple, but not long, 

 more of the nature of Indian Cotton. It is tolerably strong. A 

 better cotton all round than Sumatran either Battak or European 

 grown, and better also than samples received some years ago from 

 Labuan. It is however hardly equal to that grown in the Botanic 

 Gardens in Malacca some years ago. 



The Sea Island is shorter, but in colour and texture very similar, 

 clean and white. 



The Egyptian is short stapled and discoloured, and altogether 

 inferior. 



The grub devouring the seeds referred to in his letter is not 

 known to me. The "Ely" is obviously the cotton bug Dysdereus 

 cingulatus, a troublesome pest. Its larvae are of course not grub- 

 like at all, but small scarlet wingless bugs. It has often been 

 described in the Bulletin. 



AN ANT-KILLER. 



The Porto Rico Agricultural Station publishes a leaflet on a 

 preparation for destroying ants which attack the leaves of orange 

 trees. Fortunately the J^ast is free from any kinds of leaf-eating 

 ants, but the' preparation might be worth trying on termites. The 

 following is the Re< ipe : — 



