626 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [March i, 1894. 
AN ENEMY OF THE GREVILLEA OR 
SILKY OAK OF AUSTKALIA. 
Dear Sir,— By this post I rim eending a tin 
box oontaiQing oaterpillars with neets and eggs 
which I have found feeding on (Grevillea) silky 
oak leaves growing on an old nursery. I suppose 
they are Bomewhat akin to our old acquaintance the 
oinobona caterpillar, at kiist they work in the 
Eame fashion. Perhaps when Mr, Cinchona Poo- 
ohie retired from want of (mployment, these 
t^ok over the working tights and goodwill of 
the business. I should b3 glad to hear if they 
are common as they seem to be pretty dtstruotive. 
Thanking you in antioipalion.— Yours faithfully, 
M. 
[Mr. A. P. Green thinks (he caterpillar is of 
a common moth, tut he is waiting ijt develop- 
meat ia order to identify it properly. — Ed. I'.A.] 
NORTH BORNEO NEWS. 
Kandy, Feb. 3. 
DEiB Sib, — The British A'orth Borneo Herald 
lor January is interesting reading, and the follow- 
ing exiraots will show your readers that Tropical 
Agriculture is looking up in " New Ceylon " : — 
TOB.VCCO : A COMPARISON. 
It may be interesting to our readers to note the 
annexed comparative statement of the first seven 
years of the tobacco industry in Sumatra, and 
British North Borneo. A perusal will show that 
so far Borneo has no cause for self depreciation at 
her elder rival's expense. 
Comparative statement of imports of fine leaf 
tobacco into Holland from Sumatra and Borneo 
for 7 years. The totals are : — 
Sumatra crop :— 1864 to 1870 : crop 9,770 bales equal 
1,764,000 guilders. 
Borneo crop 1886 tolS93: 35,796 bales equal 4,.514,500 
guilders. 
The prospects for 1894 on all the estates are better 
than they have ever yet been, and are so not 
only as to quality but in some instances as to 
quantity also. 
CofFEE. — A great Bdvanoe has been made during 
the year just past in the cultivation of Liberian coSee. 
Mr. W. B. Pryer, the energetic Manager of thj various 
estates of the Borueo Development Corporation, has 
now about 280 acres in an advanced state showing 
great promise of big crops by the end of the year. 
It ia barely two yenrs since the jucgle was felled 
for this planting, and the condition of the trees 
bear eloquent testimony to the grand capabilities of 
the soil of North Borneo for this product. In Ma- 
rudu Bav the Tertipan es'ate, under the iranagement 
of Mr. T. Johnstone, late of the Segalicd river, 
S'lndaksn Bay, goes hand in hand with the succesefnl 
results achieved on the Byte Estate. Mr. W. E. 
Roberts of tho Trading and Planting Company has 
also a nice compact and flourishing area laid out in 
Liberian coffee on the Segalind river. 
A South American Obinaman came on to the Byte 
the other day. He would not believe that the 
slashing plants up to 7 feet high with their large 
glossy dark green leaves were coffee at all, and would 
not be convinced until he had picked a cherry and 
Been the beans in it! " Why" 'he said' " coffee with 
us never grows half this size and has little yellowish 
eaves" and he took np ten acres of forest and 
ordered 6,000 seedlings on the spot. 
—Yours truly, W. D. GIBBON, Agent. 
TEA PLANTATION NEAR COLOMBO : AN 
ENTERPRISING DUBASH. 
Colombo, Feb. 19. 
t)l2ia Sib,— We have the pleasure to inform 
;foa that some 7 monthe ago, pactne; Ut. 
C. C. Matbew, opened a tea estate in the village 
called Mampey — a place lying at a distance o( 10 
miles from Colombo and 5 miles from Moratuua. 
We send you herewith a sample of 5 tea leavea 
plucked from the young plants about 5 months 
old and request very kindly to give your opinion 
of it in your valuable paper and obline. — We are, 
dear sir, yours faithfully, For C. MATHBW A' Co. 
Thomab Pali,. 
P.S. — The name of the estate is "Bt. Mathew'e 
estate." 
[Nothing oould be beEllhier or more promifing 
for size than the tea leaves before as, and i( they 
are taken from a clearing only five (?) montha 
old, their growth is simply astoniehing.— Ek. T.A.'} 
INSECT PESTS AND OUR ENTOMO 
LOGIST. 
Feb. 22. 
Dear, Sib, — Now that the planters in Ceylon are 
asking for an entomologi^at the following extract 
from a memoir of the late Mr. J. Wood-Mason, 
who was Professor of Comparative Anatomy in the 
Medical College of Bengal, Fellow of the University. 
College of (Jaloutta, President of the Microscopical 
i:jooiety of Calcutta, Vice President of tbe Asiatic 
Society of Bengal, Superintendent of tbe Indian 
Museum, etc., taken from tbe last report (1893) 
of tbe Trustees just received will be read with 
some interest. 1 send it to yon in case you care to 
publish it. 
If it has not alreedy been published, it will I 
am 8ure, prove of service to planters if }on reprint 
the late Mr. Mason's report in the Tropical 
Agriculturist. The report contains some references 
to Ceylcn. The tea bug in Assam, according to 
Mr. Mason, " is so clcE'.ly allied to a Ceyloneee 
insect which was described and figured a quarter 
of a century ago by the French entomologist 
Sigcoret, under the name of Helopeliit /intonii, 
as to have been considered by no hes an authority 
than ProfeEsor Westwood to be only a variety of it." 
"The tea-bug", says Mr. Mason, belcuts to the 
Indian-Mslayan fauns, and ixtends in its 
dibiribution from Norih-Eiis'.ern and Southern 
India iuoludirg Ceylon through tbe Philippines to 
Waigion atdlsew Guiuuea."— Yours truly, 
INTEBESIED. 
(Extract from memoir of Mr. \Vood-MaBon's Scien- 
tific Career printed in the Annual Report of the 
Trustees of the Indian Museum for 1693.) 
In 1881 this study* had to be put aside for the 
time being, as the Government required a scientific 
officer to investigate the insect pests affectiug the 
tea plsnt in Assam. Mr. Wood-Mason was not 
anxious to undertake this deputatiou, for he had no 
taste for the practical or economic side o! the q les- 
tion, and he, no doubt, correctly anticipated that 
nothing short of a panacea capable of remedying all 
the ills from which the tea plant suffers would 
satisfy the expectations of those connected with 
the tea interests, while he must have fore- 
seen that an investigation that had to deal with 
the subject oi initio was not likely to prove either 
final or conclusive, and that any measures he might 
suggest must, from the circumstances of the case, 
be in the nature of experiments. However, he was 
induced to undertake the deputation and his report 
of the results <;ontains a very full and interesticg 
description of the " Tea mite and Tea-bug of Assam 
of Assam,t with a synopsis of the opinions of the 
planters themselvts on the various remedies that had 
been tried or suggested. 
* Invertebrate fauna. 
t A pamphlet of twenty pages 1 
