830 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[June i, 1894. 
at the pteseat time in India, would reault iu the 
discovery of a remedy for every dts tractive infect at 
s oost which would make its adoptiou piaoiicabie. 
But it 18 not too mnch to bcpo that carelal iovesti- 
Katious of the life histories and habits of the various 
iaeect blights, oouduoted by epecialista fully nc- 
quniated with local requiremeutG and able to coiuparo 
t.ne experieooe of other parts of tlio wjild, vfutia 
very eiinilar iosectB are olten beiiif; succosnfuly com- 
bated alroady, would reault iu many casea iu improved 
methods of ligbtiug the evil. 
7. In the United States, bosiJch eotomolugiial 
advorueB attached to individual Slates, a stroug sec- 
tion of eolomology is kept up as a branch ot the 
Agricultural Departmeut of Ihu Ctnir<il Govcrnmeut. 
Attached to the outomological section are some four- 
teen iraioed entomologiats who vi-it all puti nf 
the country in order to study nud report upon de- 
structive insects. The great iiuportaocu of c.llectii<g 
infoimation personally upon the spot is so luUy re- 
cognised tbal the tiavels ol' the iuvestigalors ara Dot 
confined to tbe limits of the United Slates, but re- 
presentatives are even occasionally despatched to 
tar distant ports of tbe woi ld. For iustunoe deputa- 
tiuDB have been sent to Brazil to siudy the insects 
coromou to North and t^ouih Am>;ricii, to Austrtli* 
to moMe the iuvosligitioLb which resulted in the 
importation o£ Vedatia beotle, to Europe to confer 
with other entotuologists upuu the joint iuti-reats of 
the So ence, and sj ou. That tbo results obtiiued 
have been oommeusurate with the cxpi.>udituro involved 
Boems to be admitted upo - all a'dva. In one ot Lis Ai.- 
uual Kepoct8,ttc Ooramissioncr of Agriculture writes — 
'Tue importance of the f-tudy of economic entomology 
becomns every year more and more oppsrcnt. doar- 
cely an Agricultural or Horticultural Meeting takes 
place but that the sulijecl of injurious iLseots and 
thi best mean? of coanieractiog their ravage ■. occupy 
a largo shaie of attention. Xhe lossev ocoaeiontd 
by destruotive insects to the fiirmers of the country 
aggregate au enormous sum, and there are few dir- 
ections in which the Department can do mora good 
than iu researches, having for thoir object the pre- 
vention of a portion of these immense losses. 
8. In India all that has yet been done bas been to 
empower one of the officers of the Indian Museum 
ia Calcutta to report upon insects thai are submitted 
by planters, officials and others end to publish the 
results. In this way a oon6id> table atnoant of in- 
formation has been collected and the nature of a 
large nnmber of the more destruc ive species of 
blights has been ascertained. Beyond this however, 
little has been posaible, for to ezpsot practical advice 
from au investigator who is tied to a Museum and is 
coBBequently unable even to feu for him e'f the fields 
where the insects are at work is like deaoandiug 
rnedicat treatment of the doctor of a Turkish harem, 
who is only permitted to see tbe tips of his patient's 
fingers thrust from behind a curtain. 
9. What is wanted for entomology ia very much 
what has already tDeen created in the case of chemistry 
viz.ytk speoialist himself free to move abaut the coun- 
try and supported by Iftboiatory aseistauls in some 
fixed place. To render tbe work of practical value, 
it is essential that it should be carried on continu- 
ously from year to year, so that the observstions made 
in one season may be supplemented and verified 
by those made in the next, and that a record may be 
kept up of tbe increase or decrease of particular 
blights so that the planting and agricultural commu- 
nity may be warned in time ot impending danger. 
It is a sine qua non also that the investigator should 
himself be in personal touch with agrionltarists in all 
parts of India and that be Bhould look, not to a purely 
scientific institution like a mussum for his instructions 
but to that section of the Governmen'i which concerns 
itself with practical agticultore. No doubt it ia 
necessary to have collections of insects and a consi- 
derable library of entomological works foi reference, 
but it ia absurd to suppose that an entomologist 
should be tied, to these ; and to saddle aa is now done 
the whole work upon a museum which ia priraarily 
engaged in making collections of zoological and mor- 
pliol -gical Bpeciiuenfi,and whicb looks to llie clabora*e 
eibibition and catalogaing of these treasure* as it« 
chief end and object muh . obviously be fa al to prao- 
ticxl results Eo far as agriculture is cenoeriied. 
10. In the United States toe scientist who is at 
tbe bead of the entomolof^ical section of the Agri- 
cultural Department of the Central GoverumeDt, ie 
aho honorary curator of the department of ineecta 
iu the United States' Na'ional Museum at Washing- 
ton, and iimougtt bis aseistants, one m*n is upecitlly 
di-lailed to attend to the colloctir u<. In every tbiog 
cl-e the taitomologists directly belong to the Agn- 
cultur»l Departmeut. tbeir reports being made to tbe 
Coiuiuis>iiiuer of Agricalture, and they work iu concert 
with tbe other Ecientific biaocbes under tbe general 
direction of the t'ommitstioner of Agricalture. 
The B»mb system i' ptrfeotly practicable in India, 
under tbo Revenue and Agricul(ar.>l Department, and 
ouf^bt nudoubtedly tu be auopted. 
11. Tho quebtion of cxp::cse is by no meaoi a 
difficult one. Already a permanent annual grant of 
bvo thousand rupfca is made by the Government to 
tbe In ian Museum for the express purpose of Economic 
Entomology and this amount is eupplemeutrd by an 
annual rontributioa from tho Forest L/epirtment for 
a seriea of Iicturea delivered in the l3ipr>rial Forest 
School at Dehra by the officir in chaige of Museum 
on ciitomidi'gy. If, tb< r- foro, the Indian Mvenm 
were reli'Tpii altogctbir cf the work and with it of 
the n^cefsity uf paying a pperial member of its stalT 
for tbo porpoBO, all that woull be nec' ssary would 
be to incri-aso tbe amount devoted to the subject 
sntficientty ta mHiu^sin a somewhat strong) r staff and 
to defray the cost of travelling expetses. This ad- 
ditional I'xpendi'ura could pr>batly be met without 
any fortbtr call whatever upju the s*r«i'ni d fiasnces 
of the (Jenlral Govern'neu*. partly by cm'ributiooe 
from Local Government", niid partly by grants from 
the budg»ts of the Provincial D rectcri of Land 
Hecords and Agriculture, who would no doubt gladly 
tak ' a'lv:tntage of the cntnmologionl aasistiuce that 
would by this meana be rendered available, ia order 
to obtain r.p ris upjn th« inject blights incidtntal 
to the prii'cipnl crops in the vnri- us pr )vinces for 
which they are respocsible. J. Buckingham. 
Amgrorie, 9th Marc'-i 1891. 
MANURING EXPERIMENTS. 
The complete chemijal manure in tbe Wsi- 
mins er experimenta was a mixture o( sulphate 
of ammonia, Buperpbosphate, and kainit. It was 
applied on tho plots which yielded the greatest 
crops at the rate of 12 o«t. per acre, and gave 
betlir results than 32 tons ot farmyard manure. 
Tho proportions ot the mixture of tho threj manures 
are not stated, bat tbe mixture contained 3'37 per 
cent of nitrogen, 4'2 per cent of phosphoric acid, 
and 4 per cent of potash. But when the sulphate 
of ammonia was omitted, the yield was no greater 
than on the unmanured land, and this was the 
oaee aleo in the preceding season. Trials were 
made with difierent quantities of manure, winter 
and spring planting, close and wide planting, 
different varieties of potatoes, cut and uncut eeetJ 
tubers, deep and shallow cultivation, and spraying 
with Bordeaux mixture.— /ndi'are Agriculturist. 
Coffee PitospECTS in Uva. — We learn from 
Mr. T. J. E. Johnson that native coffee between 
Badulla end Haputale is locking better than he 
ha? Been it for m;ny years back, and coffee that 
has already given a small Spring crop on the 
Naraogalla range, ia looking quite healthy and 
tit for an autumn crop— already three blossoms 
having set. This, we need scarcely say, i3 an 
unusual experience of late years. Altogether we 
trust that coffee in Uva is going to add appre- 
ciably to our exports of the old staple this year. 
As for tea, the report everywhere in U»a Beema 
to be mosi satisfaotory. 
