THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, [December r, 1887. 
annually reports, as to this country, ou the injurious 
insects prevalent, and the means of chocking their 
ravages) as supplying hints for the procedure to be 
followed. The advice seems to have been taken ; and 
some valuable suggestions, by the lady entomologist 
referred to were communicated to the Government 
of India. 
The amount of damage sustained by the Indian 
cultivator may be in some degree inferred from oc- 
currences which took place a few years back ia Ceylon, 
where the pro .luce of the coffee crop was, in a few 
seasons, reduced, by insect ravages,* from 4| cwt. 
per acre to less than 2J cwt., or by more than one 
half; the total loss being estimated at fifteen millions 
sterling in ten years; To turn to the cotton crop 
in India, the value of which is roughly put at seven 
crores of rupees annually, we are told by the United 
States Agricultural Ootn missioner that, in parts of 
India "one-fourth of the value of the cotton crop 
is sometimes lost from the ravages of the larvae of 
one insect." 
Pending fuller inquiry, Dr. Balfour has has deemed 
it well to collect, for present information, what is 
already on record respecting Indian Agricultural pests 
of all kinds, with especial advertence to insects and 
fungi. Besides adopting the alphabetical form of ar- 
rangement — assuredly the best where so many facts 
have to be marshalled under various heads, as regards 
the " pests " themselves, the author has enhanced 
the value of the little work by naming, under the 
appropriate heading, the principal enemies of each 
crop. Thus, under " coffee " we find (p. 43) a list 
of no less than twenty-seven foes against whom watch 
and ward ought to be kept on behalf of this import- 
ant, yet delicate and vulnerable object of cultivation. 
Wheat, at p. 113, poppy and rice (pp. 93 and 99), 
silk, tea with its table adjunct, sugar, (pp. 101 to 
109), are in turn duly dealt with their many foes, 
while in a growing state being enumerated, and the 
means of prevention indicated. A chief measure of 
protection seems to be, in India as here, a frequent 
change of crops. As the author well reminds us, 
"Eich insect species has its own particular plants, 
on which alone it lives, and, when deprived of food 
by a change in cultivation, they die." Certain crops, 
too, have a direct effect in killing off certain tribes 
of "pests." But something more than this method 
of procedure — at best but partially applicable in India — 
seems to be needed ; nor will washings or syringings, 
such as those suggested as a pis aller in the introduc- 
tion, suffice to combat the enormsus fecundity of the 
insect world. When we read that, even in Europe, 
five generations proceeding from a single aphis (plant- 
lice) reach the number of six thousand millions, we 
may well despair of realising the magnitude of the 
evil with which we have to cope. Nature has, how- 
ever, been by no means niggardly in according us 
help: and Dr. Balfour, in giving the fullest parti- 
culars as to the enemies which beset each insect tribe, 
and which may be taken as being nature's appointed 
means of combating its ravages, has indicated a 
weapon 'which ought not to be allowed to rust. He 
has succeeded in compressing, within the compass of 
120 pages, adequately, full, and wholly trustworthy 
details respecting insects, reptiles, and mammals in- 
jurious to man and his products, and has added yet 
another to the many obligations under which he has 
laid all who are interested in the welfare of India, 
and the prosperity of its agriculture. — Allen's Indian 
Mail. 
SUGAR. 
After corn and meat, sugar has become one of 
the chief foods of the people of the United Kingdom. 
The consumption per heal of population is now 
uot short of 75 lb, a year, including the sugar in 
articles expirtel. At au average retail price of 21. 
the 1 lb., this will be 12s 6d. In France the con- 
sumption per head is about 30 1b. only; but the 
* As our readers are aware, although black bug and 
brown and white grub did much harm to coffee, the 
great enemy of the plant was a fungus. — Ed. 
retail price there is very much higber than in 
Great Britain. In Paris sugar is twice as dear as 
in London. In Germany, also, thj retail prices of 
s igar are much higher thau with us, aad the popul- 
ation can only afford about 20 lb. per head. The 
Balgiaus take about the same quautfty per head as 
the French, and the Dutch tie sam 3 ai the Germans. 
In Austro-Huugary the people caa afford only about 
14 lb. In Russia the consumption is less than one- 
ninth per head of what it is iu Great Britain. The 
retail price of sugar in all these countries due to 
fisoal arrangements and a strong protectionist policy, 
is far higher than in the United Kingdom ; some- 
times double the price, and even more in places. 
It is well known that the people on the Continent 
of Europe have a liking for sugar and sugared goods, 
equal to if not greater than the people of these 
islauds ; therefore, if sugar could be had in those 
European countries for about the same prices that 
prevail in Great Britain, it is at least probable that 
the consumption per head would bo equil to half 
that of the people of the Unitel Kingdom. The 
Continent of Europe would, under these conditions, 
require about six million tons more sugar aunually. 
Were the European people allowed by their Govern- 
ments to have sugar cheap, they might even consume 
the same quantity per head as do the inhabitants 
of these islands. In this case au additional supply 
equal to three times the present average yearly 
output of sugar in the world would be wa'nted be- 
yond present requirements to meet this extra demand. 
There can be no doubt the p3ople of the Continent 
would be glad of a considerably larger supply of 
sugar for domestic purposes were the price such as to 
bring the article more within their reach. 
A cjusiderable rise in the price of sugar in the 
United Kingdom would cause a falling off in the 
consumption, but not to the standard seen on the 
Continent; beciuse the people of these islands have 
higher wages, and have been accustomed to the 
greater supply for their tea and other purposes, 
and would not relinquish it except under much 
stress. The use of sugar for mauy purposes of 
manufacture would also be checked were the price 
to rise permanently. 
When a people have become accustomed to the use 
of a commodity on a great scale, it has been noticed 
that should it afterwards became scarce, or the supply 
be necessarily reduced, due to greater cost, substitutes 
are usually forthcoming to, as near as possible, take 
its place and fill the void at the old price. Tne rise of 
the beet sugar industry was primarily due to the 
impossibility of the French getting cane sujar from 
the West Indies during the Napoleonic wars, and it 
was afterwards revived and continued owing to the 
then very high price of this cane sugar. Should the 
prices of beet aud cane sugars be raised materially 
beyond recent market prices, we should probably see 
substitutes making their way iu the markets of tne 
world. Machinery and applied chemistry are now 
approaching that advanced stage of perfection that 
any raw product whatever known to contain saccharine 
matter, and from which the sugar may be extracted, 
will be certain to be utilised if it happens to coma 
within that range which almits of a commercial profit 
being male out of ;t. It is well known that enormous 
amounts of raw material exist (such as the Mahwa 
flower — corollas of Bassialatifolia,) which a perceptible 
rise in the cost of cane and beet sugars would enable 
manufacturers to utilise.* Even with cane and beet 
sugar at their present low prices, an (inferior) article 
to compete with them, has recently been largely made 
in the United States. The manufacture of glucose 
from Indian corn (one bushel of oru is said to yield 
32 lb. of glucose) employed 20 factories iu 18S4, capable 
of turning out 20,000,0")0 dols. worth aunually, the 
present output being about one-third of this. This 
sugar (which may be marketed in the States at from 
Id. to 1£J. per lb. retail, if uot for less) possesses only 
about two-thirds the sweetening power of cane sugar. 
# The value of the Mauw.a flowers »vas greaoty 
exaggerated. It is simply a pjjr article of sweet too I 
for the natives.— Ed. 
