5 



After comparing the soil and plants of the Bahamas with that of Yucatan I do assure your Ex- 

 cellency that the one compares most favourably with the other ; and that we have in this Colony 

 every requirement for the development of the enterprise, and I am most sanguine as to the ultimate 

 result of the Bahama Hemp industry. 



Trusting that this report will meet with your Excellency's approbation. 



I have the honour to be, 

 Your Excellency's most obedient servant, 



E. Jerome Stuart, 

 President Justice, 



Long Island. 



DISEASE IN SISAL HEMP IN TURKS ISLAND. 



The following letter refers to attacks on Sisal Hemp by insects in Turks Island. 



From enquii'ies made of the growers of Sisal Hemp in Jamaica, it appears that there is no sign of 

 this disease at present. The letter is however published to put planters on their guard, and to suggest 

 a remedy which has proved effectual, applied while only a few plants were affected. 



Grand Turk, June 16th, 1892. 



Honourable Henry Higgins, Commissioner. 

 My dear Sir, 



In regard to the possibility of the blight to the fibre plant', which prevails in the Bahamas, 

 having extended to this colony, I desire to say that, not having complete information as to the 

 character of the disease, I am not in a position to write with absolute certainty. 



About a year ago, in going over some of the old fields at my place at Haulover, I found a few of 

 the plants, some that were beginning to pole or that were near the poling period, showed signs of 

 withering in the centre. On examining the suckers surrounding them, about two and a half feet in 

 height, I found some of them also affected. A close examination of the outside of one plant showed 

 no ground for the withering. Upon cutting into the trunk it was found to be 3warming with insects 

 and grubs, which had riddled the interior but never showed themselves on the outside. It was a 

 peculiarity that only suckers dependent upon an affected plant were affected. Other neighbouring 

 suckers from sound plants were free from the pests. Thus in a field of about 200 plants a single ma- 

 tured plant would be withered, together with four or five of the largest suckers surrounding it, and all 

 other plants and suckers would be in a perfectly healthy condition. From this I concluded that the 

 insects did not migrate overland but found their way inside the roots from the parent plant to the 

 largest suckers. In the entire plantation I found only a very small number affected. These pests 

 were readily exterminated by putting dead bushes over the clump of trees and suckers and setting fire 

 to them. With a little care the tire could be confined to the diseased plants, usually five or six, in- 

 cluding suckers, so that adjoining healthy plants would not be injured. Since then no further reports 

 have reached me of unhealthy plants in the old fields. When I was informed that some kind of blight 

 had been prevailing in the Bahamas, I did not hesitate to say that nothing of the kind had extended 

 to my plantation, presuming it was something different from the trouble which I have described and 

 which was of no special importance. Afterward upon inquiring of the manager I was told that a few 

 of the plants in fields recently laid out had shown signs of being affected in the same way as those in 

 the old fields, but that the number was so trifling and the difficulty was so easily overcome that it was 

 not deemed worth mentioning. 



The insect is about three quarters of an inch in length, somewhat like a beetle and of a dark 

 bronze colour. The grub is perfectly white. The holes made by them are about a quarter of an inch 

 in diameter. They seem to prefer the part of the leaf at its junction with the trunk. 



If the blight in the Bahamas is the same as that which I have described, it need give the 

 proprietors no uneasiness, as the insects are readily extirpated in the wav I have mentioned. If it is 

 different it certainly has not extended to these Islands. 



Yours, &c. 



Jos. A. Hance. 



I forward this as it may interest your Excellency and also perhaps be useful to Mr. Fawcett. 

 The writer is our only exporter as yet, of Pita Hemp. 



Haulover is on Grand Caicos, the island next Breezy Point Island. 



18.6.92. H. H. 



A TREE FOR BEE-KEEPERS. 



" I send you herewith some sprigs of a shrub or dwarf tree which seems to me to be botanically 

 interesting and economically useful. 



" My son keeps many hives of bees here, and does very well with them. He has, as his crop this 

 spring, shipped 27 barrels of honey of 30 gallons each, and about 1^ cwt. of wax, although he uses 

 much of his wax in making " foundation comb" for his comb frames. My attention was first called to 

 the plant I am noticing by the way all sorts of bees, wasps, flies, and ants, swarm upon it when in 

 flower. It is a night blossomer opening at about an hour before dusk and closing about the same time 

 after sun-rise, but in that short space of time, especially in the evening, it is simply alive with hyine- 

 noptera, so that it is difficult to pick a flower without being stung. 



" When it is in flower it is one sheet of white-looking flowers, I say white-looking, because it is 

 the stamens only that are white, but I have pricked as many as 152 of these out of one flower set in a 



