October, 1911.] 



319 



Plant Sanitation. 



pest. This principle may be applied to 

 tea cultivation ; for instance, where a 

 small area of tea is infested by a swarm 

 of caterpillars, the pest may often be 

 isolated and the surrounding busbes 

 protected by spraying the latter with 

 a deterrent — of which the well-known 

 fungicide 'Bordeaux Mixture' is per- 

 haps the most effective and convenient. 

 I believe it is a fact that Bordeaux Mix- 

 ture first came into use as a deterrent 

 pure and simple. It was employed 

 to spray grapes growing along the 

 roadsides in the vineyards of Bor- 

 deaux; to prevent petty thefts of the 

 fruit. It was subsequently observed 

 that these roadside plants remained 

 markedly immune to fungus pests that 

 prevailed in other parts of the vine- 

 yards, so leading to the discovery of its 

 fungicidal properties. 



Amongst insect pests of the house, Mr. 

 Lefroy alludes to the annoying habit of 

 certain wasps that amuse themselves by 

 plugging key holes with their mud cells. 

 He recommends the device suggested 

 by a correspondent, which is described 

 in his own words : — ''My bungalow seem- 

 ed to be the rendezvous of all the bees, 

 wasps and stinging flies of the station. 

 Prominent amongst these creatures was 

 one robed in a kind of metallic blue and 

 with a figure like a hubble-bubble ; this 

 waspish lady would go round the 

 bungalow daily and block up all the 

 key-holes in my furniture, no matter 

 how often I cleared these out, Mrs. 

 Wasp would block them up again and 

 put a white seal on them to let me know 

 that it was she who did this. Things 

 got so had that I tried an experiment, 

 which for the last twenty years has 

 proved most successful. I simply cut a 

 small block of wood, 8" x 4" x 3", and in 

 this I bored 2 dozen holes 2|" deep by i" 

 diameter. In each of these holes I put 

 an empty Carter's Little Liver Pill bottle 

 and hung the block of wood on a nail on 

 the wall just in front of my writing 

 table where I can see it. Result : for 

 twenty years the key-holes of my fur- 

 niture have never once been blocked. 

 For twenty years, in spite of my being 

 transferred from and to different sta- 

 tions, my two dozen bottles have had 

 tenants ; sometimes it is bees, sometimes 

 wasps ; they arrive, look over the estab- 

 lishment, select an empty compartment, 



stock it with provisions, which are 

 sometimes small spiders, sometimes cater- 

 pillars, as the case may be, seal up the 

 bottle and leave nature to do the rest." 



Borax, either dusted into corners, or 

 mixed with syrup and smeared on pieces 

 of tin, is recommended as an infallible 

 cure for Cockroaches ; and there is a 

 useful recipe for a mixture to preserve 

 the covers of books from the ravages 

 of the same objectionable insect. I may 

 mention that this mixture has been in 

 use for some years in the library of the 

 Royal Botanic Gardens, where it has 

 proved itself a most efficient deterrent. 



The author has prescribed for nearly 

 all the putty plagues of daily experience, 

 but there are two notable exceptions. 

 He does not touch upon the important 

 question of the prevention of the abomin- 

 able house fly— now recognized as one 

 of the principal conveyers of the germs 

 of Typhoid and many other serious 

 intestinal diseases. Nor does he give us 

 any suggestions for the mitigation of 

 the recurrent plague of ' eye-flies.' 



Tape soaked in a saturated solution of 

 Corrosive Sublimate is recommended as 

 an efficient barrier against the passage 

 of ants. We are told that it "tacked 

 or tied round legs of tables, along edges 

 of shelves, etc., ants will not cross it." 

 This may be effective against certain 

 species, but it has proved absolutely use- 

 less against a tiny ant that infests my 

 laboratory. They will cross the medi- 

 cated tape without hesitation and — 

 apparently — with impunity. I have seen 

 a procession of this particular species 

 traverse a freshly laid trail of the solu- 

 tion almost before it was dry. 



Nor have I been more successful, after 

 repeated experiment, with the ingenious 

 mosquito trap devised by Mr. Lefroy 

 and described in this bulletin. I have 

 followed the printed instructions to the 

 letter, but not one single mosquito have 

 I yet succeeded in inveigling into the 

 trap, though they have indicated their 

 presence in their usual irritating manner. 



I have, however, no hesitation in re- 

 commending Mr. Lefroy's booklet as an 

 indispensable adjunct to every house- 

 hold. 



E. Ernest Green. 



