Miscellaneous. 



m 



[August, 1911. 



'Pouched Rat' (Geomys bursarius) be- 

 longs to a family of rodents that is con- 

 fined to the new world. It is known to 

 have a very complicated burrow. It is 

 unlikely that our Ceylon rat constructs 

 very branching tunnels, but I must con- 

 fess that I have no accurate information 

 on the subject. It is a question that 

 could soon be settled on the spot by 

 opening up several of the burrow. . Our 

 paddy-field rat is presumably the same 

 species that has been giving trouble in 

 the Federated Malay States, where the 

 carbon bisulphide treatment is said to 

 be successfully employed." 



It may here be mentioned that carbon 

 bisulphide employed by the Agricultural 

 Instructors against field rats on the 

 advice of Mr. Green has given very satis- 

 fying results. The burrows of these 

 creatures are fairly complicated as 

 ascertained in the Government Stock 

 Garden. 



Complaints have been received of the 

 damage done to coconut gardens in 

 Colombo city by the Rhinoceros beetle, 

 as the result of suitable breeding places 

 being provided for the pest by cattle 

 manure depots. The question of taking 

 action against the owners of these 

 depots was referred to the Government 

 Entomologist, who is good enough to 

 report as follows : — " I fear that the 

 owner of a coconut garden has no re- 

 medy under the Pests Ordinance against 

 the owner of a neighbouring manure 

 depot, unless the district is proclaimed. 

 Even then it would be difficult to enforce 

 measures which would make the manure 

 merchant's business impossible. If, as is 

 possible, it can be shown that the 

 manure depot is injurious to public 

 health from the sanitary point of view, 

 the Sanitary Officer might be induced to 

 move in the matter. I should fancy 

 that a cattle manure depot must breed 

 and distribute an intolerable plague of 

 house flies." 



Lac Culture. 

 This subject was first brought to the 

 notice of the Society by the Director, 

 Imperial Institute, in a letter dated May 

 6, 1910. Professor Dunstan referred to 

 stick and seed lac received from Baroda 

 State gardens as having been collected 

 from the rain tree ( Pithecolobium 

 saman), and suggested that as this tree 

 was common in Ceylon, it would be 

 worth while utilizing it as a host for the 

 lac insect. He valued the seed or 

 granular lac at 55s. to 60s. per cwt., 

 London. The matter having been re- 

 ferred to the Government Entomologist, 

 Mr. Green approved of an attempt being 

 made to introduce Tachardia lacca, 



which up to date failed to reach Ceylon 

 in a living state. In a letter received 

 from the Imperial Entomologist for 

 India, with whom I placed myself in 

 communication, Mr. Maxwell Lefroy 

 thought we should send over a mau 

 there to learn the business. Subsequent- 

 ly I was .led to expect that Mr, Lefroy 

 would visit Ceylon and give us the 

 benefit of his advice on this subject, as 

 well as on sericulture and apiculture, 

 but his departure for Europe and his 

 prolonged stay there suggested a further 

 communication with his locum tenens 

 (Mr. Bainbrigge Fletcher), which result- 

 ed in satisfactory arrangements being 

 made for the despatch of an Agricul- 

 tural Instructor to the Research In- 

 stitute, Pusa, with a view to his under- 

 going practical training in lac culture 

 during the September-October season. 



Sericulture. 



In May a Manchester firm wrote that 

 they had been buying eri cocoons for 

 some time past, and expressed their 

 readiness to buy Ceylon-grown silk in 

 quantity. The quotation made for 

 cocoons was Is- od. per lb. delivered 

 Manchester, as per sample sent, which 

 was of a low average quality. 



Working as this Society has done in 

 co-operation with the Imperial Entomo- 

 logist for India, I consulted that officer, 

 who wrote in reply that he would 

 communicate direct with Manchester, 

 but at the same time did not consider 

 the offer very tempting, as the minimum 

 price offered by the Bombay mills was 

 Re. 1 per lb. Samples of the eri silk 

 cloth made in India were also sent, and 

 I am submitting these for inspection to- 

 day. This information from Pnsa was 

 placed at the disposal of the Salvation 

 Army. The latest developments at the 

 silk farm are indicated in the following 

 authorized communication by the 

 Salvation Army :— " The Manager of the 

 Salvation Army's silk farm has pur- 

 chased from schools and villagers 

 quantities of eri silk cocoons, and he is 

 now in a position to buy from any one in 

 Ceylon. The eri silk cocoons cannot be 

 wound like mulberry cocoons, but there 

 is practically an unlimited market for 

 the former for cording and other pur- 

 poses, and the Salvation Army is in 

 touch with English and French firms 

 who can purchase large quantities. One 

 of the Salvation Army's silk schools in 

 India sent a sample shipment to a Paris 

 firm recently, which realized Rs. 500. 

 There is a tremendous future before this 

 silk in Ceylon, as our sample is superior 

 to the samples sent by certain European 

 firms. The experts to whom the samples 



