6 9 



them by hand or knock them down with sticks. The young locusts 

 usually live in grass and scrub and if these animals appear on the 

 estate any of this should be cut down in the neighbourhood. Quite 

 a small patch of long grass and weeds will form a home for a num- 

 ber of these locusts. 



Some seedlings I planted out experimentally quite young in a 

 grassy wet spot suffered from a complexity of pests. Beside the fun- 

 gus alluded to I found in the evening some small brown slugs about 

 an inch long very slimy and active which nibbled off the shoots, and 

 one of the common bag-worm-, a caterpillar living in a grey silk 

 conical case, was attacking the leaves; small grasshoppers too 

 were attacking the leaves. Many leaf-eating insects, when their 

 special food runs short, will attack any plant that happens to be 

 near, and do more or less harm. It is, therefore, not advisable to 

 plant out seedlings in uncleared ground too young. Stumps or 

 plants about 6 feet tall seem to escape all these kinds of vermin, the 

 leaves being too high for them to find. — Editor. 



PRICE OP RUBBER STILL RISING. 



A note in the Ceylon Weekly Times records a rise in price of rub- 

 ber in Ceylon from general estates to 6/4^, fine Para at the time 

 fetching 5/4^. Similar prices have been obtained in the Malay 

 Peninsula and we hear of one estate which has beaten the Ceylon 

 records at 6/6. High prices are expected to continue for some 

 time. Meanwhile a good many estates in the Peninsula are pro- 

 fiting by the demand and, we understand, are making a good haul, 

 which will go a long way to counteract losses in bygone years on 

 Coffee and the like. 



THE PRICE OP RUBBER. 



A Rise. 



The notification issued on December 4th by India-rubber manu- 

 facturers of another 10 per cent rise in mechanical goods has doubt- 

 less come as unwelcome intelligence to those primarily affected by 

 it. Yet there will be few, says the Engineer, who will dispute its 

 justification in the light of the continued rise in price of the raw 

 material. Para rubber has recently touched figures hitherto without 

 parallel, and the ingenuity of the manufacturers has been taxed to 

 the utmost to cope with the altered situation. The difficulties that 

 have been met with are reflected in the report of the big Silvertown 

 Company, which, with an increase of sales, shows a considerable 

 falling off in profits. Buyers of rubber goods may feel assured that 

 the recent advance in price was determined upon as a matter ot 

 stern necessity, and is in no way the outcome of any desire on the 



