518 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[Fe?,. 2, 190-^. 
were; but it so happens,- that we ourselves have 
seen the deadliest enemy of scale insects destroyed 
as an " ugly red bug," both by picking off and 
spraying, namely the lady bird beetle, the same 
insect that Californians hunted the world to get 
foand one kind in, and introduced it from, Australia 
apd which saved their orange groves from des- 
ttaotion by the " San Jose Scale," while lately after 
searching the world through they have found a 
more voracious species of "Ladybird " in the heart 
of China. There may be other friends of our trees 
insects or birds unknown to us, which get scant 
mercy at our hands. Is not all this worthy of 
special study and investigation, by an entomologist ? 
I daresay in saving the cost of an entomologist, 
we are losing one hundred times as much in the time 
and labour involved, in every man attempting to 
being his own doctor of his trees and still losing 
them. We have doctors for men, another branch 
for horses and cattle, so why not a plant doctor ? 
It is hard to see scores of trees that have just reached 
bearing age, dying out ; but it is jast at the stage 
when the great call is made on the constitution of 
the tree, that its weakness become apparent, and 
it Cinnot stand the strain. The whole trouble, we 
think can be traced. It is not in the fact of budding 
or grafting, for the bud is part of another tree 
and if there is any weakness in its constitution that 
can only affect the top of the tree, while our most 
serious trouble is at the roots, and these roots art 
those of the stock, grown from a seed. It is in fact 
seedling sour orange trees that are dying out in out 
groves from root troubles, exactly what the advocates 
of seedling trees forget. The sweet seedling trees 
in wood and pasture are subject to exactly the 
same, and to all d seases that the budded trees in 
groves suffer from, and every day some are dying 
out : you can see them diseased and decaying on 
^very estate, only certain of the very fittest almost 
disease-proof surviving, as we have pointed out, and 
there is in every cultivated grove always the same 
thing, certain stout, strong, healthy trees, that 
cannot be killed. But never having had much, if 
any money, spent on them, and little or no care, 
these dead or dying seedlings are not particularly 
noticed. Still they do not suffer as much from 
disease of the roots as do budded trees ; that is 
evident ; wild self-planted seedlings are diseased above 
ground, seldom below, while it is the opposite with 
most of the bndJed trees the growth of which ia 
BO unsatisfactory in many places. Is it not evident 
from this that there is some fault in the transplanting 
and in the treatment generally of these grove trees. 
The fact is, the whole operations from planting the 
seed in a nursery on, have been bad. The self-sown 
seedling select thamselves by the fittest surviving; 
but no selection has been mide by the planter, as 
a rule. He has not chosen the sour orange tree 
that was perfect and free from disease, and well 
loaded with large fruit ; nor has he chosen the 
plumpest seed from these fruits. We question whether 
in transplanting the small seedling trees from a 
bed to a nursery, the treatment has been such as 
could be calculated to make them strong and vigorous. 
Both in off nursery beds and in groves — and generally 
with all oar horticultural operations, — the ground 
has been too quickly and roughly prepared. It is 
mainly old fallow ground, which is cleared, holes dug, 
and trees put in all in a week. The soil with this 
treatment cannot be in condition for tender trees to 
make growth, — tender, for all trasplanted trees are 
tender, and the soil must be of the sweetest and 
finest for the cut surfaces to heal and put forth the 
little feeble roots to take food material, and they 
consequently get a bad start. But a seedling never 
interferred with grows slowly and ateadily, its tap 
root is deep down ; as it puts forth a fresh root, 
it is seeding all the time through a hundred others. 
Our treatment therefore has not bsen tender enou|<h, 
has been too rough and ready. When deep planting 
Jb added to this, the death of the tree is certain, 
What is required is to plant fewer trees, and take 
more time in all the cultural operations from the 
beginning, for what does it profit to have ground 
cleared, holes dug, and 5,000 trees might be looked 
over that are bound to give trouble and anxiety and 
loss later, when 1,000 trees very carefully and 
minutely looked after will probably give as a large 
a return. There is far more money in 100 trees 
beai-ing 1,000 oranges each than in 1,000 Itrees bearing 
only 100, and poor ones at that. We also want a 
special study made to find the mast deadly enemies 
to our greatest pesis; what for instance would prey 
most upon Pidler bsetles, and what upon their larva 
the oily "makaka3?"At present the only enemies 
to the ''makaka" we know ai'e poultry, and young 
pigs, let loose in the grove, and these rout and 
scrape these grubs up. If the roots are thoroughly 
hea'thy the tops will never likely die off myste- 
riously. Spraying the foliage and branches for all 
soits of diseases is not an unmixed blessing it you 
kill off the lady birds which are so valiant in 
our i". erests. Without healthy roots there can be 
no aealthy tree. The proper preparation of the 
soil and the careful planting of the young trees are 
things to be looked upon with respect. To dig a row 
of holes in raw soils and get any odd worker about 
the place to stick the trees in up to the bud as 
fast as the holes were dug was the general style of 
planting some of these very trees that are now dying 
out. There ia a science in planting trees that may 
not be learned in a day, however easy it looks — 
Journal of the Jamaica Agricultural Society, 
♦ 
CULTIVATION OP SUN FLOWERS. 
The first year of the t=veatieth centnry closed with 
a curious sale, on the Baltic, of a cargo of sunflower 
seeds, which changed hands at £11 6s. per ton. 
Though a small trade has been done in sunflower 
seeds for close on 200 years, this transaction was 
the first in which a whole cargo— 300 tons from 
Odessa— was dealt with. In Russia, where the culti- 
vation of the sunflower and the manufacture of oil 
fiom its seed is conducted on a large scale, the 
Gcandi Flora is the variety grown. The species rises 
iu a slender stalk of 5ft. high, producing one monster 
head, the average yield being as much as fifty 
bushels of seed to the acre. So rich is it in oil 
that that quantity of seed will yield fifty gallons 
of oil i while the refuse of the seed, after the 
quantity of oil has been expressed, weighs 1,500 lb. 
when made into cattle cakes. Few people in England 
who grow the sunflower for ornament have any idea 
of its usefulness. It is amang neglected crops in 
which there is money, as is shown by the price paid 
a few days ago. Besides the seed, every other portion 
of the plant can be utilised. The leave.s furnish an 
excellent fodder ; while in Kussia the stalks are 
prized as fuel, and their ashes, which contain 10 
per cent, of potash, are readily sold to soapmikers. 
Naturally, in Russia the chief virtue of the sunflower 
lies in oil contained in its seed. The oil is of a clear 
pale yellow colour, almost inodorous, and of an 
agreeable, mild taste, so that; it is in great request 
as a table article. Why sunflowers are not culti- 
vated on an extensive scale in England, it is difficult 
to say. Po.ultry and cattle like the seed either ia 
its natural state or crushed and made into cakes. 
No plant produces such fine honey and wax ; when 
the flower is in bloom the bees abiund in it. — Journal 
of the Department of Agriculture of Western Australia. 
♦ 
A Large Indian Melon. — A very fine fruit of the 
Indian Melon (Cucumis Melo var. momordica) was^rown 
at Government House, Singapore, in sandy soil. It 
was dark green, mottled with lighter colour, and 
weighed 16J lb., with a length of 2 feet 3 inches and a 
circumference at the broadest end of 1 foot 10 inches. 
It had not much flavour, but is said to be very whole- 
some, and is an important article of food ia India,— r 
Gardeners' Chronicle. ' 
