478 



[December, 1912. 



they inadvertently detach the whitish hairs which are connected with the 

 respiratory systems in the females and so cause their death. Other 

 enemies are the predaceous caterpillar which feed on lac, and two small 

 parasites which lay eggs in the resin cells of the female and so kill them. 



The methods of fighting these enemies present no difficulties and are 

 fully explained in the bulletin. 



On the whole the bulletin with numerous illustrations, including a 

 coloured plate, will be found a useful guide to those who take an interest 

 in lac culture. 



The following are the botanical names of the trees referred to above : — 

 Kusum (Schleichera trijuga), Ber (Zyzyphus jujuba), Palas (Butea frondom), 

 Peepul (Ficus religiosa), Arhar (Cajanus indicus). The omission of the 

 Rain tree {l J ithecolvbium saman) is noticeable. 



N. WICKRAMARATNE, 



Agricultural Instructor. 



PAPER-MAKING IN BURMA. 



The Indian Agricxdturint of November 1, 1912, states that paper has 

 been made in Burma and the Shan States for a very long time. 



The Chinese taught the Japanese how to make paper, as they also 

 taught them how to make porcelain and bronze and all their forms of art, 

 and the Japanese have known how to profit by what they were taught 

 and how to improve on it. Like the Chinese, the Japanese began by 

 making paper from the so-called paper mulberry bush, which botanists 

 know as the Broussonetia papurifera and the Japanese call kozu and 

 other plants with hand machines. The Japanese have got far beyond 

 that in places. Just as they have got beyond buying all their rifles and 

 battleships and machinery in Europe they have proved that they can 

 make papers in the same textuie as the European mills. The value of the 

 production ot the Japanese machine-equipped mills is now £1,600,000 

 while that of the hand mills still keep a head of it with £1,900,000. It was 

 not till 1872 that the making of paper in the European style began. In 

 that year the Oji paper-mill was established which uses rice, straw, rags 

 and waste-paper for the manufacture. 



THE MOON AND THE WEATHER. 



Lecturing on "The Moon" at Queen's College, London, Professor R. A. 

 Gregory said investigations had shown that air tides were produced by 

 the moon but they only caused a difference of one-fiftieth of an inch in 

 the height of the mercury in a barometer and were of no valu^ in pract- 

 ical weather-forecasting. Systematic inquiries had failed to reveal any 

 useful rule connecting the moon with the weather. 



Meteorologists in many countries had, however, shown that there 

 were more thunderstorms during the first half of a lunar month than at 

 the period of the full and waning moon. But this was of no assistance in 

 predicting the occurrence of individual storms. — Daily Mail, 



