764 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[May i, 1895. 
The first crop from the older trees was picked in 
1893. This year about one-half the plantation ia in 
bearing. The cacao shows signs of bearing in its 
third year from seedling, and the coffee two yeara 
from time of planting out from the nursery. Before 
the whole of the 150 acres will begin to yield a 
return three years must yet elapse. 
The cost of clearing forest, planting out, and 
weeding for the first four years is on an ave-age 
of about 41. per annum per acre. That is to say, 
an estate of 150 acres in the fourth year would 
represent 2,100/. capital spent on cultivation. This 
includes the cost of management and all expenses 
of labour, but not cost of plants or first cost of 
the land; after the fourth year it is reckoned that 
the cost will fall to 3?., and in the seventh year to 21. 
This is accounted for by the growth of the 
trees giving sufficient shade to cover the whole of 
the ground, thus causing less weeding. It is now 
calculate! that one man can keep 'A acres clean, 
and the cost of that labour is abont 9/. per head 
per annum. The weeds are well kept down throughout 
the estate, and the surface of the ground kept 
regularly tilled by Krooboy and native labour with 
the use of a hoe. Under such careful management 
inflects or fungoid disease, &c. do not appear to 
cause any trouble, and in the month of Sep'ember 
the trees were a perfect picture of health and 
vigour, the young trees being in full bloom. Mr. 
Batty everywhere sets according to the maxim that 
what is worth doing is worth doing well. 
Cacao-curing. — The beans are fermented for three 
days, then placed on shelves in the drying-house 
for two days. After that they are exposed to the 
Bun direct for two or thee weeks until thoroughly dry. 
Coffee-curing. — At present the dry process is adopted, 
but when the yield increases the usual wet process 
will be used. Tbe berries are now placed on the 
drying ground firat, as they are picked from the 
trees and allowed to remain there for a period of 
six weeks, and when dry they are pounded in mortars 
by band till the husks and parchment come off. 
l£ew Bulletin, (Signed) J. K. Holmes, 
District Commissioner. 
CRYPTOL.EMUS MONTROUZIERI, OR THE 
SCALE INSECTS' ENEMY. 
BY 
Henry Tryon. 
^Eead on 1st September, 1892;. 
The trunks of the handsome bunya trees growing 
along the river banks of our Botanical Gardens 
are at present conspicously marked by snow-white 
spots and blotches. Oa examination this will be 
found to be due to the presence of small active 
six-footed grubs, resembling what ail horticulturists 
recognise as " mealy bugV measuring about Jin. in 
length, and covered above with six rows of conti- 
guous opaque white mealy appendages, which being 
of the nature of secreted matter are easily remov- 
able- Clusters of those grubs, iu crannies in the 
bark, in a quiescent condition, will also be enconn- 
tered, and amongst them some similarly clothed 
pupa:. Creeping slowly amongst the scales of the 
trunk surface will also be noticed small oval beetles, 
measuring about |in. in length and fin. in breadth, 
having the head, the corselet, the extremity of the 
wing covera ; and the under surface in part, red ; 
whilst the greater portion of the wing covers above 
and the thorax beneath is black. The whole surface 
is also finely punctured, and thickly clothed with 
close greyish pubescence. Transferring our obser- 
vations to the foliage of the bunya, it will be 
noticed that these snow-white grubs and the less 
oonspicuous beetles, are wandering amongst it also : 
and further examination will reveal the fact that 
their attention is being occupied by a species of 
coccus — or cochineal insect — with which the trees 
are badly infested. This coccus (named Dactylopius 
autfeariae) will be recognised on the under surfaces 
of the leaves as presenting the appearance of amal 
grains of sulphur, for so it appears in its early 
condition of life. And on the stems themselves, 
often her.ped together in »ast numbers, will be 
found small tumid black bodies with a raised yellow 
central dorsal stripe, a similarly coloured one ou 
either side, and a massive mauve-c loured heap at 
one extremity. These bodies, which are eiampb s 
of the adult coccu a . are easily injured, and then 
stain any body which may come in contact with 
them a decided purple. The mauve coloured heap 
referred to 19 the ovisac and its contents. In fact 
the relationship which subsists between the b.etle 
and the white grub on the one band and the 
Dactylopius anricarise on the other, ia that of a 
carnivorous insect aud its prey. The discovery of 
this interesting connection vtas published by mc in 
.July, 1S«9, iu my report on " Insect and Fungus 
Pests " (page 10), when dealing with the discrimi- 
nation between frie"ds mid foes amongst insects, 
being made known in these words: — "It is however, 
for destroying our scale insects that the Coccinel!id:>; 
1 ladybirds 1 are here most highly useful To mention 
but a single instance, that of a small black beetle, 
reddened at each extremity, belonging to tiie group 
Scymnites and named Ovptolasmus. The larva of 
this is a email active grub, measuring \vn. in length 
covered above with six rows of contiguous, e'ongated 
white mealy, secreted appendages. Quite receotly 
the bunya bunyas and other auricanaceous trees 
growing about Brisbane !>ave been infested by a 
coccan insect — an apparently undescribed species of 
Dactylopius, which affects especially the 6pot where 
the leaves and branches unite; and these parasites 
were at o e time bo numerous that the death of 
these va'uable trees from their attacks seemed very 
imrnineit. However, the Crypto'amns beetle also 
visited the Auricarias. and in some places its Kr-». 
occurred in such profusion that the trunks of these 
tre--e, and the ground around their bases, looked as if 
flour had been dusted in patches here and there upon 
them. Both in its adult aud larval condition it waged 
war upon the coccid insects, and as a result these trees 
are saved from destruction. This friendly insect is 
none other than the one wnich is met with on various 
native tre-s, especially acacias, and also on the 
citriceous and other economic plants of oar gardens. 
These also it visits for the purpose of ridding them, 
or at least checking the increase, of the various 
scale insects, especially thos6 belonging to the 
LecanidiB which infest the tress, and these pests 
it literally mows down to the surface of tbe leaf, 
so great being its voracity. That such an obvious 
fact should h«ve escaped observation, much less 
comment, seems scarcely credible, and yet it is so. 
Further than this, wherever the writer has been, 
either at Toowoomba or Brisbane, the larva of thi» 
insect lias been regarded as the mealy bug (another 
coccid unhappily becoming now too prevalent about 
Brisbane 1, aud, under a mistaken idea, destroyed 
by those who make a practice of killing destructive 
insect-visitants i,o their crops." The same insect is 
again alluded to on page 135 of the same report. 
The importance of this discovery to toe agri- 
cultural interest, though lost sight of here, has 
been fully recognised in other countries, as may 
be concluded from the remarks which are to follow. 
The Hon. Ellwood Cooper, President of the State 
Board of Agriculture of California, in the course 
of his opening address to the Thirteenth State 
Fruit-growers' Convention, after quoting largely 
from ray Report on Insect and Fungus Pests as 
far as it related to " parasites and predaceous 
insects." and reading, amongst other extracts from 
it. the one cited concerning Cryptokemus, concluded. 
" I will not copy further, but the numerous parasites 
and predaceous insects described in the work ought 
to impress upon our minds the importance of an 
immediate investigation, even if only a semblance 
of fact should be credited to the report. I urge, 
therefore, that we memorialise Congress for an 
adequate appropriation to defray the necessary 
expenses of a specialist to go to Australia and adjacent 
isiands to investigate these reported predaceous 
insects," We nest leaio 'hat the CaJiforoiaa Stats 
