3^4 
tHF TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [December I, 1889 
insects except, perhaps, occasionally in Jaffna. 
Neither is it now locally important to quote notices 
of three insects which have attacked cinchonas in 
Sikhim. But we quote what is said about 
Dactylopius adonidum, Linn., already described in 
the Journal of the Asiatic Society (Part II, p. 288, 
188b) has been procured from Mysore, where it occurs 
ou Cedrela sp., Aerocarpus fraxinifolius, Ficus mysor- 
ensis, F. ylomerata, F. asperrima, &c, and does consider- 
able damage to the coiiee bashes. Mr. Anderson, of 
Barguai (Mysore), has sent some remarkable examples 
of the curious nlack fungoid growth which seems 
invariably to accompany this insect, and, covering the 
twigs, effectually rottens and kills them. He describes 
it as a black, felted substance, extremely like a fungoid 
growth : iu appearance it is very like the sooty 
accumulation that occurs on bottles in cellars and which 
wine-merchants sometimes exhibit in situ, on bottles, 
as evidence of the time that they have been kept. That 
which accompanies the Lecauium nigrum, Nietner, iu 
Ceylon, has been named Trisporvum gardneri by Berke- 
ley, and is described as having at first the ap- 
pearance of a thin, diluted black-wash, but, rapidly 
ucreasing in density, within two or three months it 
quite covers and blackens the leaves and other parts 
of the trees, finally almost resembling moss. Its 
period of growth, in Ceylon, appears to extend over 
about twelve months, when it is replaced by a young 
growth, or both it and the scale abandon the tree, 
and, when leaving the tree, the fungus peels off in 
large flakes. Mr. Nietner writes : — 
" As the occupation of a coffee or any other tree 
(by scale-insects) gives rise to the appearance of a 
glutinous saccharine substance (honey-dew, which is 
either a secretion of the scale, or its extravasated sap 
that flows from the wouuded tree, or, more probably, 
a combination of both), which disappears with the 
scale, aud as the fungus does exactly the same, I 
have no doubt that its vegetation depends upon the 
glutinous saccharine substance." 
Mr. Anderson also noticed the occurrence of this 
honey-dew in connection with Dactylopius ado?iidum 
in Mysore, and writes that the tree, when attacked, 
bleeds or gums so profusely that the ground all 
round the stem is made moist. 
Mr. Maskell, in his account of the scale inseots of 
New Zealand, (p. 15), also calls this transparent, gela- 
tinous, fluid excretion, ' honey-dew,' and remarks that 
it is apparently analogous to that exuding from tne 
Aphides, Psyllidas and Aleurodidze. It varies in quan- 
tity with the species present, and appears to be excre- 
ted by a cylindrical tube, exserted from the ano-genital 
orifice after the manner of a telescope, the furthest- 
extended portion of the tube, being the most slender. 
In the genus Ccelostoma, when this tube is pushed out 
toils lull extent, there appears at its furthest extre- 
mity a minute globule of yellowish, nearly transparent 
glutinous fluid, which rapidly expands like a soap- 
bubble, and then, suddenly breaking off, fa!, in spray 
on the leaf beneath, as the coccids are usually attached 
to the underside of a leaf. It therefore injures the 
leaf in two ways, by stopping up the stomata of the 
leaf itself, and by forming a nidus for fungoid growths 
which rapidly accumulate and kill those portions of the 
plant on which they appear. Removing the fungus 
is not sufficient, but in addition, the scale-insect itself 
must be sought out and destroyed by the kerosine emul- 
sion described m No. 2 of these Notes and which for 
reference is reproduced here— 
" An emulsion resembling butter can be produced in 
a few minutes by churning with a force-pump two 
parts of kerosine aud one part of sour-milk, or soap 
solution in a pail ; emulsions, made with soap solutions 
being generally found to be the more effective. The 
liquids should be at about blood-heat. This emul- 
sion may be diluted with from nine to fifty parts of 
water, which should be thoroughly mixed with one pari 
of the emulsion. 
f Tne strength of the dilution must vary according, 
to the nature of the insect to be dealt with, as well as 
to the nature of the plant; but finely sprayed iu twelve 
parts of the water to one of the emulsion, it will kill 
most insects without injury to the plant." 
It should be applied through a spray nozzle (see pi. 
4, fig. 4)- 
" The nozzle which best combines the necessary 
qualities is undoubtedly the eddy or cyclone nozzle, 
consisting ot a small circular cnarnber with two flat 
sides, one of them screwed on, so as to be readily 
removed. Its principal feature consists in the inlet, 
through which the liquid is forced, beiug bored tangen- 
tially through its wall, so as to causa a rapid whirling 
or centrifugal motion of the liquid, which issues in a 
funnel-shaped spray through the central outlet in the 
adjustable cap. The breadth or height, fineness or 
coarseness, of the spray, depends on certain details 
in the proportions of the parts, and specially in the 
central outlet. 
" To drive the liquid through the nozzle some kind of 
force-pump is required, and a great number have at 
different times been experimented with, some of them 
being of a most complicated nature. It is perhaps 
not of any very great consequence which particular 
form is adopted for use in India ; buttbe aquapult 
force-pump, which has been arranged to be worked 
entire by one man, who also distributes the spray, 
seems to be about the best suited for general use in a 
country where economy in labour is generally not so 
great an object as economy in the cost of apparatus." 
(To be continued.) 
+ _ 
Coffee and Tobacco in Java. — The Coffee Com- 
pany Hansa, which is to be established in this city 
has opened its subscription for shares. The amount 
to be subscribed is 200,000 guilders, divided into 
2,000 shares each 100 guilders at par. The 
Amsterdam Tobacco Company, owners of the state 
Senonbah in Deli, and which imported the tobacco 
under the brand N. G., has been bought by the 
Deli Company. The tobacco of this estate was 
shipped lately to Bremen, but will, of course, now 
be offered aga in in this market, which will be a 
great ad vantage, as the quantity of this brand is 
considerable. — L.&C. Express. 
Tea Boxes. — A rather important industry arising 
out of the tea trade is the making of boxes. During 
the past thirteen years the manufacture of tea-boxes 
in the Valley districts of Assam has increased from 
1,384 to 379,089, — this being the number reported as 
the outturn of 1888-89. At the same time the import 
of boxes, which stood at 135,718 in 1875, had gone 
down to 127,827 last year. Tea boxes are now very 
extensively manufactured on the various tea estates, 
where the engines which are used in summer to 
work the rolling and other machines in the manu- 
facture of tea, are employed in winter to work the 
saw-benches. But there are, besides, nine saw- 
mills in the Lakhimpur district and one in the 
Darrang distriot, where tea-boxes are manufactured 
for sale, fclome of the owners of saw-mills in the 
Lakhimpur district are unwilling to furnish informa- 
tion regarding the number of boxes turned out; 
but the Divisional Officer estimates that about 
200,000 boxes are made by all the saw mills in 
that district, while the Divisional Officer in Darrang 
reports that 1.3,441 boxes were sold by the Tezpur 
saw-mill during the year under report. Last year 
Sylhet and Cachar received 23,075 boxes from 
Calcutta and exported 131,453 containing teas, from 
which it is inferred by the officials that 108,378 
boxes had been made locally, as compared with 
47,938 made in these districts in 1875. As in the 
Valley districts, large quantities of boxes are made 
on the gardens, and there are also many carpenter 
establishments where boxes are made for sale. These 
concerns are chiefly to be found on the banks ot 
the main rivers.— Englishman. 
