S THE TROPICAL 
"THRIPS" ON CACAO IN 
GUADELOUPE. 
Through the courtesy of Mr. Louis H. Ayme, 
United Staiea CohbuI at Guadeloupe, a copy has 
been received of a tiauelntiou of a report by M. 
Aug. Elot on the occuirence of 'thrips' on caoao 
iu thit i.ilau^. This post w»s tho snlject of an 
article, with ficrores ol the younc :ind matiua insect, 
iu the Indian Ihdlelin, Vol. II, pp. 17o-liiO, 
■where its ocoiurenco in Greniida, St. A''ip.cent, St. 
Lncia and D.iniinioa was notod, with a compreUeu- 
Bive description of its habits and distribuiiou in 
Grenada. 
M. Elot'a report deals evidently with the same 
insect and, wliilst showing that it Las extended its 
racge to Guadeloupe, describes an attack closely 
sicilar to that observed in some parts of Giauada 
during 1900. In hid summary, M. Elot sayss that 
the pest is pretty widely dislributed among the 
OHcao plantations of Guadeloupe ; that the damage 
is someumes iusigniticaut, sometimes very great, 
according to the eiivironmeut ; that the best way 
of protection against tlie disease is found in seek- 
ing favourable conditions for the culture and iu 
giving the plantations every caie compatible with 
Biich culture, and then if, in spite of these, damage 
is caused by the insects the remedy is to be sought 
in spraying the trees aSacted with kerosene emulsion. 
The attacks of 'thrips' in Guadeloupe are similar 
to those elsewhere, the amouut of llie damage being 
large or small according to cii cumstaiices. Evi- 
dently M. Klot'.s experience fully contiims the view 
that whilst careful treatment of the trees will do 
mu' h to lessen or avert the attacks of the pest, the 
ultimate reliance must be placed iu spraying. The 
question of spraying was very fully dealt with in the 
article on thrips refeired to above, and whilst ker- 
osene emulsion was recommended especially for 
spraying pods, rosin and other washes were Bug- 
gesttd for gnneral t^eatmout. The insect can pro- 
bibly be regarded as a pest of cacao, always ready 
to become troublesome and cause damage whenever 
the conditions are favourable, either from drought 
or from neglect and wrong treatment of the trees. 
Whether the peat will eventually become so de- 
atractive as to need extensive treatment on n large 
scale ia doubtful, but caoao planters iu Grenada, St. 
Vincent, St. Lucia, Dominica and Guadeloupe will 
need to be on their guard for signs of injury and 
BBe the spraying machine to check the increase of 
the insect whenever it becomes destructively abundant_ 
M. Klofs report states that the insect had been 
Bent by him to Prof. Gi»rd at Paris, who has named 
it PhyiOpm ruhrocincia. It was previously regarded 
here as belonging to the genus Jleliotlirips. iMr. 
Pergandc of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, 
to whom the insect was referred for determination 
was of opinion that it constituted a new genus 
allied to Jfeliot/iri/is. 
Specimens of the insect were also sent to Mr. E. 
E. Green, wlio had previously ••ecorded the occurrence 
of a thrips on cacnQ in Goylon. In a letter of 
September 16, I'JOl, ho states :— ' I beg to acknowledge 
receipt of yonr specimens of the " Grenada thrips " 
This insect appears to be clo^ely allied to the thrips 
affecting cacao in C.!jlon. Tho larva and nymph of 
our Ccyloneso iuiect are also distinguished by a 
transvotse crimson band, which appears to bo a 
Btrikinu feature in the early stftges of tho Grenada 
thrips.' 
The geographical distribution, as known at presenti 
iTGronad.i, St. Vincent, St. Lucia, Dominica, (Juade- 
loupo and postibly <>>lon- It is not impiobable thit 
the insect w II bo found to occur in otlier parts of 
the West lodiis and South America,— ir«< InUan 
ftuHctin, 
AGRlCtlLTtlRIST. [July 1, 1902,' 
FORESTRY IN INDIA. 
[Yearly Forest Report, Madras, 1899 1900.] 
Severe Cbiticism : Wanting to Know About 
eucalypts. 
I have searched in this report, amidst the dreary 
was^e of undiscussed and undigested figures, for in- 
formatiou regarding the interesting growth of Aus- 
tralian trees on ths Nilgiris. Eucalyptus I find 
referred to if it were one tree, not a class of 
trees. Your readers are probably aware that there 
are about 150 species of Euonlypts with climatic 
requirements ranging from the tropics to that of the 
temperate zone. There are two or three species which 
flourish in Java : and Roxburgh refers to a Eucaly- 
ptus MoUiccana, which wag cultivated for soma jeara 
in tlie Calcutta Botanic Gardens. These species 
flourish under the equator. Going polewards we find 
the last of this moat remarkable genus of timber 
trees in a climate hardly differing from Devonshire 
in England— a little more snow ia winter, and a 
little higher insolation. Nine tenths of the species of 
Eucalypts are worthless for timber purposes. A few, 
such as the \Y. Australian Jarrah and Karrie, the 
S. Australian sugar gum and Leuco.-cylon gum, and 
the E. Australian iron-barks, tallow-wood, and E. 
resinifera, together with E. rostrata of the dry inte- 
rior, afford some .of the most useful timber trees for 
out-door use and whenever great strength is required. 
As I remember the Nilgiris (Now alas! nineteen 
years f^g^) only the least valuable kinds were grown 
there, but these were marvellous as regards celerity 
and vigour of growth. Since then a railway has 
been made to the Nilgiris, and this "White-man's 
oasis thoroughly opened np. In Ceylon and many 
other countries the steel sleepers (which should never 
have been put down) are beiug replaced by hard 
wood, Eucalypt sleepers from Australia. One naturally, 
therefore, turns to the Madras report to see what is 
being done to grow these valuable Eucalypt timbers 
in the temperate climite of the Nilgiri plateau which 
is seemingly so well suited to them' The informa- 
tion affoi ded in the Madras Forest Report is miser- 
ably meagre. Thus we read that some Euealypta 
have been planted in the plains of the North Arcot 
district which had failed, as m'ght be expected. Some 
seedliugs in nurseries on the Shevaroys were 2 inches 
high. " The trees of the different species of Eucalyp- 
tus in the Nilgiris were, on the whole, doing well.'' 
Surely the Madraj Forest Department m'ght do more, 
or tell us more of what was doing than this. Is it that 
its work ia jaialyaed by the unfortunate system of 
dual control and divided responsibility ? 
The Madras Boaid of Revenue describe this meagre 
report "as a full and interesitng one." No doubt 
it is full to the brim of figures. One is tempted to 
enquire what purpose is gained by printing 60 pages 
of Ji/iures and bald statements. Would it not be better 
to place these in the archives of the Board of Revenue, 
and furnish to the Government of India, and to the 
public, an intelligible digest, thus following the course 
pursued in other large industrial concerns run on a 
business footing (D. E. H.) Cape Town, 6th Sep- 
tember, lOOi. — Indirm I'ofcster. 
Cultivation of Tobacco under Tents. — We are 
informed that the cultivation of tobacco under tents 
is now being experimented with in Gonnecticub. The 
experiments were made orginally at the State Agri- 
cultural .Station, as well as by private individuals, 
in the effect to laise wrapper-leif tobacco of the 
Sumatran type in fndds completely covered and o osed 
in all round V. i'.h thin cheesecloth. The result is de- 
clared to be perfectly satisfactory. If memory serves 
us aright, the experiment was tried some thirty-five 
years Miice at a place c illed Broxbouine, on the G.E.R., 
but only on a sma'l scale, and was attended with a 
fair amount of success ; netting of am 11 mesh was used 
as a covering to the " pens-"— C/ai't^c ei-6' Chnnicle, 
