296 



[October, 1912, 



are to be closed and the floor and the walls under the tobacco watered. 

 This moisture is to be kept up for one day, then a small fire i9 lit in the 

 fire place and some wet sacks are placed on the flues so as to produce the 

 steam necessary to soften the leaves sufficiently to allow of their removal. 

 When the central rib is soft enough to be bent without breaking, the 

 leaves are removed, sorted and made up into parcels of twelve to fifteen 

 leaves each.— {Journal d f Agriculture Tropicale, No. 131, pp. 129-133) 



TERMITES OR WHITE ANTS. 



Mr. Bainbrigge Fletcher, Entomologist to the Government of Madras, 

 contributes a paper on the above subject to the July issue of the Agricul- 

 tural Journal of India. 



The author confines hi9 remarks chiefly to the common mound-build- 

 ing species, the life history of which he fully describes. 



Refeiiing to the lack of information on the subject, he says:— "It 

 would naturally be expected that we should have a good knowledge of at 

 least the different kinds of Termites which occur in the Indian region, but 

 it is a regrettable fact that this is by no means the case. Although India 

 is the habitat of many species whose habits delight the observant natur- 

 alist and others which interest the systematic worker, in the strangeness 

 of their structure or the peculiarity of their geographical distribution, 

 the Termites of India and Burma seem to have suffered a strange neglect 

 at the hands ot collectors and observers of insects. A certain amount of 

 work has been done, especial^' within the last few years, on the Sinhalese 

 species, of which over thirty distinct forms are now known to Science, 

 whilst only about a score are known at present from the whole of the 

 Indian Peninsula (including Burma), although it is probable that at least 

 one hundred distinct forms really occur." 



With regard to their relation to agriculture, Mr. Fletcher remarks 

 that the damage done to crops is not so apparent to the casual observer 

 as that done to buildings, but the latter is really insignificant in com- 

 parison with the former. Not only are cereals attacked but valuable crops 

 such as sugar-cane, poppy, groundnut, khorasami, fruit trees, castor, jute, 

 peas, sunflower, &c. The annual loss caused by termites attacking crops 

 in British India alone is estimated at over £20,000,000. 



THE BANDARAGAMA GARDEN. 



This garden is almost exculsively devoted to fruit culture, chiefly 

 citrus fruits and pineapples : but other good varieties distributed by the 

 Society have also found a home there. A small section is devoted to the 

 growing of vegetables. 



A couple of years ago a circuit bungalow was erected in the garden, 

 and in front of it an ornamental plot of ground has been laid out. 



The garden was started with the assistance of Mr. Conroy, C.C.S.; and 

 Mr. Plant, C.C.S., his successor, is greatly interested in its success. 



It is under the direct supervision of Mr. J. A. Wirasiughe, the ener- 

 getic Mudaliyar of Rayigam K^rule, and is visited periodically by an 

 Agricultural Instructor. 



The garden should in time prove a most useful centre for the extension 

 of fruit cultivation in the Kalutara District, (See Frontispiece for illus- 

 tration.) 



