Sept. r 1893.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
167 
3. Destruction of Injured Teeks. — This treatmeot 
is the one most generally recomnaended, but it re- 
qaires caution. An attacked tree should not be 
hastily out before there are uumistakable siecB, by 
the withering of the leaves and spike, that it is doomed. 
About the possibility of saving injured trees there is 
much dispute, but a certain number do survive the 
first attack, especially if low down in the steoi, and 
in India it is found practicable to attempt their cure. 
It is ufelesB to cat down any infested tree, ulIbss 
proper steps are taken to treat it when felled so as 
to make it unsuitable as a breedingplace, In fact it 
will be probably le83 harmful if left standing than 
if felled and neglected. 
4. Capture of the Weevils — This plan has also 
been generally reeommended, and is in some ways 
preferable to the lait- It is attended with no des- 
truction cf trees, and is applicable to plantations 
which have not yet become seriously infested, whereas 
the felling of palmsjcan only be resorted to when ttjey 
are already injured. There are three ways of taking 
the perfect insects: on the wing or when crawling 
about ; when lurking in the crevices of the leal-sheaths 
and fibre; when attracted to baits. 
The best way — that by which the greatest number 
can be caught with the least labour — is the last. It 
has been mentioned in the preceding section that the 
stumps and soft ti«fues — the split cabbage — of felled 
palms are most suitable for this purpose, because the 
weevils are attracted in large numbers to the ferment- 
ing tap, and can bs fa»ily ccllected. It has been 
proposed to sprinkle iha ttumps with Paris-green 
to kill the weevils vis ting them. The experiment 
may be tried, but will possibly defeat its object, 
because arsenic in an antiseptic and may chock the 
termentitiou of the sap and iis attractive odour. 
The beetles can be collected into buckets and killed 
with boiling water. If they are apt to escape from 
the buckets these should be furniahe<1 with a tinned 
iron lid sloping down to a hole in the middle, so 
as to form a funnel through which the weevils cau 
be dropped. As tho weevils, like many other kinds, 
seeks shelter by day, the stumps and other baits should 
be vibited at different times, practically atdaybreatf, to 
find out when the insects frequent them most ; and the 
stumps will probably last loD);er and keep fresher if 
protect* d from the eun with alight covering of leaves 
ai d fibre, which csn be removed to get at the insects. 
When no fe ling of palms is going on, other suitable 
baits are mangoes or other fruit crushed and allowed 
to ferment. It has been suggested to cut wild 
palms in the neighbourhood in order to catch the 
beetles visiting the stumps. Tbis is open to the 
objection that these palms must be caretnlly destroyed 
or by becoming breeiiing plr. ces they will be more 
dangerous than if lelt standing. Now the practice 
of attraotiug the weevils to fermenting mangoes cannot, 
however carelesply carried out, increase their num- 
bers. The search for weevils biding in the crannies 
of the palms is more suitable for Indian plantations, 
where the trees are regularly ex" mined to catch 
Rhinucerous beetles and the Palm Weevi s are taken 
incidentally. It is simply a question of convenience 
and the amount of labour involved. Observations 
may be made to see if there is any hour when 
the weevils can best be tjikeii on the trees. 
The females are the important sex, and any 
means ot capture which only takes males will 
not limit the numbers of the next generation. 
One advantage of the methoi of oaptnie at baits is 
that it can be carried out by children and unski'lfd 
-labourers. Attraction, by fir( a, into which the weevils 
plunge at night, has been tried in Asia, but tho 
Palmetto Weevil, according to Summers, does not 
01 11H3 to lifht. 
o. Encoubagkment of Insectivouous ANmALS.— ■ 
Till the habits of the weevils' natural enemies have 
been more stuJied, not much cau be doue in this way, 
anJ it is unlikely that there is at present any large 
dostriiclion of insectivoionn birds that n quires checking. 
Mr. Hunter in the Report ascribed the immunity cf 
his plantations to his keeping a herJ of 190 pigs. 
Tho pracliop of letting swine forage is well known and 
Liaployed in Ooutinental foroetry. 'I'hey are greedy 
devourers of such large insects and grubs as they 
can fled on the ground or by rooting. Mr. Craig, an- 
other planter, states : " in a group four trees out of 25 
were rot attacked, found that those four were infested 
with black ants. Has tried to transplant ant.s, but 
failed ; sajs the antsfefd on the eggs of the beetles. 
Did not understand thg varinus stages of insect life; 
did not know fema'e ants ; accidentally smoked some 
ants out of a tree five years old ; the next year it was 
attacked by beetles and died." 
6. The Ctjrk op Injured Trees.— This, theugh 
little tried in Honduras, has met with a certain amount 
of sucess in India. One method is to out into the 
soft parts of the tree, and extract the grubs. This 
requires great skill, both in observing the early atagea 
of the injury — for it is useless to try it on a tree 
whose leaf-spike is manifestly dying — and in tho opera- 
tion itself. It is preferable not to attempt to reach 
the grub, bu* to kill it by !the injection into its 
burrow of carbolic acid, kerosene, or Paris green sub- 
prnded in water, but there is a risk of injuring the 
tree in this way. All wounds should bn properly 
dressed with tar. Another plan is to app'y remedies 
to the head of the tree, which presumably are carried 
down to holes made by the grubs at the base of the 
spike. It is questionable whether the?e applications 
are not more of a- prevention than a remedy. An Indian 
native m'thod of destroying them " is tohang little bags 
cf salt over the affected parts cf the tree. Water is 
then poured over the salt, so that tho brine sonks into 
the borings and drives out the beetle. It is bplieved 
tbat the latter will never return to a tree whrre it hue 
been subjected to the above treatment." The above 
quotation from a recent report is intended to refer to 
the Palm-Weevil. It appears, however, to the writer 
that the plan is used for the Rhinoceros beetle. 
Other applications aaid to have met with success in 
some persons' hands are slaked lime, kerosene and 
arsenic; the latter is perhaps the beet, and should be 
used Es Paris green or London pnrple, stirred up in 
water in the proportion of about 1 oz. of Paris green 
and 2 of flour made into a paste, to 10 or 12 gallons 
of water and sprayed into tte head of thq^ree. If tho 
plant shows signs of injury a weaker solution should bo 
used. Lime deserves a further trial, and nitrate of 
soda might be used. None of the above methods 
sbonld be tried on a large scale till they eve proved to 
he harmless to the plant. Firing the head of the tree 
as recommended for "fever" has also proved a cure, but 
tho p»lm is greatly weakened, and a further attack is 
thereby invited. Perhaps the method of pouring poison 
int o the holes is the most promising ; according to Mr. 
Seay it has already met with some Buocess, 
LABOK ON HAWAIIAN PLANTATIONS. 
Among the questions involved in the proposed 
change of the present Hawaiian Government by its 
absorpticn in the American Republic, and which 
has brought out much comment, is the labor system 
on onr sugar and nee plantations. If we rightly 
understand the American law, no contract made 
abroid f<'r any class of laborers is bindiD-r in the 
United States, and a penalty uttachee for every 
attempt to evade this law, which is designed to pre- 
vent the importation of foreign laborers of any kind 
wbateve'', skilled or unskilled. 
Laborers on Hawaiian plantations come here under 
a verbal promise or a, written engagement to enter 
into a thiee-ycars' contract immediately on arrival. 
These contracts are generally favorable to the la- 
borer, and in the case of the Japanese, where a 
portion of the wage is paid to the consul, many of 
them close their term of service with a handsome 
cash balance to their credit. In (act, they return 
comparatively independent to their homes in Japan, 
which they left as poor men three years before. 
As some of the existing contiacts contain iiecal 
provision?, these will, in the event of anne.xation, 
require to be obsnged. This might be done readily, 
if a small advance in wagei were offered. It would 
seem, tlisn, that our labour system, as thus modified, 
might he mudn tosi.ittLc new order of things, with- 
out injury to the plaatiog interest. 
