330 
THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
[Nov.  I,  1895, 
AN  ENEMY  OF  TEA— THE  HED  “1]()1!EK” 
ON  A l.OWCOUNTUY  ESTATE. 
Hanwella,  Salawa  Estate,  Sept.  21. 
De.\u  Sir, — 1 have  fouud  in  the  new  held  of  this 
estate  certain  kinds  of  insects  which  are  called 
“ Parasa  |epida,”  " /.ertzeva  coff'eo’,”  “Eunieta  sik- 
kiine.  Ihese  insects  destroy  the  young  tea  bushes, 
some  eating  the  hark,  some  the  leaves  and  others 
bore  holes  in  the  stems  .and  eat  the  heart  of  the 
main  stem.  I learnt  these  names  of  the  insects  and 
their  forms  by  reading  the  l;ook  which  is  called 
“ Iea  Insects  ” published  by  Mr.  E.  C.  Ootes. 
I am  sorry  I l)uricd  all  Uie  insects  1 found.  I 
post  to  you  a piece  of  stem  in  which  you  can  see 
the  tunnel  made  by  the  intects  and  lo.v  they  eat. 
I showed  all  the  insects  to  Mr.  liichard  Morgan  and 
he  advised  me  to  direct  them  to  you. — Yours  truly, 
CHAS.  A.  PIElilS. 
_ [ISalawa  estate  which  is  now  included  in  the  Kelani 
Valley  district  has  100  acres  under  tea  ; but  IMr. 
Pieris  does  not  tell  us  if  the  mischief  is  widespread, 
although  we  gather  it  is  chieily  conlined  to  the 
young  tea.  The  enemy  is  the  well-known  red 
“ borer  ” to  which  Nietncr  first  gave  a name  and 
wrote  : — 
'•  This  insect  ....  destroys  many  trees,  young 
and  old,  the  caterpillar  eating  out  the  heart:  for 
this  purpose  it  generally  enters  the  I ree  six  or  twelve 
inches  from  the  ground,  ascending  upwards.  For- 
tunately it  is  not  abundant.  It  resembles  the  cater- 
pillar of  the  goat-moth  of  England,  is  two  inches 
long,  and  as  thick  as  a goose-cpiill,  nearly  naked,  of 
yellowish  colour,  back  red,  head  thoracic,  and  anal 
plates  blackish  ; when  full-grown  the  colours  are 
light  and  dirty.  The  sickly  drooping  foliage,  and  a 
heap  of  globules  of  conglomeratecl  wood-dust  at  the 
foot  ef  a tree  soon  indicate  that  the  caterpillar  is 
carrying  on  its  destructive  work  inside.  The  chrysalis 
rests  three  months,  and  its  skin  half  protrudes  from 
the  hole  when  the  moth  escapes,  which  is  about 
February.  The  moth  measures  1^"  across  the  wings, 
which  are  white,  spotted  with  steel  blue;  the  upper 
ones,  with  one  large  spot  and  numerous  series  of 
small  ones,  placed  in  rows  between  the  nerves;  the 
lower  wings  are  less  spotted.  Thorax  with  four  spots 
near  margin.  Abdomen  variegated  with  blue.  Leg.s 
blue,  second  pair  with  wliite  femora,  third  pair  witli 
white  femora,  and  tibise."  ]\Ir.  E.  E.  Green  adds 
that  the  presence  of  the  insect  may  usually  bo 
detected  by  the  heaps  of  sawdust-like  excrement  to 
be  found  on  the  ground  under  the  bush. 
With  regard  to  remedies,  cutting  out  infested 
stems  is  the  most  promising  treatment  that  has 
been  suggested,  though  the  damage  occasioned  ap- 
pears to  be  seldom  sufficient  to  make  this  worth 
while.  In  the  case  of  coffee  bushes  Dr.  Bidie  re- 
marks ( lieiwrt  on  the  ivcdi/es  of  the  hornr  on  cojlee 
estates,  Madias,  18(i7) : — “If  not  much  injured,  the 
external  opening  should  be  closed  with  a wooden 
peg,  which  causes  the  death  of  the  borer,  and  tl  e 
tree  will  then  in  all  probability  recover.”  Squirting 
kerosine  oil  into  the  whole  or  hooking  the  grub  out 
with  a barbed  wire  would  also  be  likely  to  be  effective 
in  cases  where  the  trouble  was  worth  taking. 
—Ed.  T.J.] 
THE  YAFUE  OF  I’EFPER  IN  CEYI.UN  AND 
INDIAN  CROI’.-i. 
Dariry,  Oainpol.a,  Sept.  27. 
ItllAK  SiH, — li>  your  notiio  of  Mr.  Tatliam’s 
returns  of  ex'imrts  from  Southern  Indi.a,  you  s.ay 
that  in  1894  Ceylon  only  exjiorted  14:1  owt.  of 
])ep])er=  K:!"),  1 K5  ! ’ Surely  there  i.s  something  wrong 
liereV  as  this  works  out  K245-tj.‘l  per  cwt.  or 
B2-21  per  lb.  Southern  India  exi)ortcd  1894-95 
lol,4:i!)  cwt.  valued  at  l!2,574,46:i  works  out  I!  17 
j)er  cwt.  or  say  lo  cents  peril).  This,  I take  it, 
is  more  in  accord.ance  with  the  facts,  lor  as  a 
biiiall  grower  of  i)epi»er  1 know  tliat  1 liad  con- 
sider,able  dilliculty  in  dispo.sing  of  this  yeai's 
crop  at  111  cents  per  lb.  in  Colombo.  At  these 
prices  I don’t  think  there  is  much  inducement 
to  grow  it. — Yours  faithfully,  J.  A.  H. 
[We  I'egret  very  much  to  find  there  was  a mis- 
])rinf,  the  local  Customs  value  w.as  Il:i,51d  or  1124 ‘oO 
per  cwt.,  or  not  quite  22  cents  per  lb.  ; but  Customs 
valuations  when  there  is  no  <Iuty  are  proverbially 
haiihazard.  Tlie  London  ((notation  in  our  last 
“T.  A.”  is  2id  per  lb.  which  corresjtonds  with  the 
local  i;i  to  1.)  cents.  We  are  sorry  to  find  that 
our  correspondent  docs  not  think  this  price  very 
prolitable  : is  he  not  rather  too  high,  however,  for 
the  proper  pei)i)er-growing  region  of  heavy  crops  ? 
— El).  7'.J.] 
CAMl’HOK  TREKS  AND  MR.  NOCK’S 
(’A.MPHOR  EXPERIMENTS. 
Ohiya,  Sept.  28th. 
DivAI:  Sik, — Concerning  the  Camphor  industry, 
is  it  not  po.ssible  tlnat  Mr.  Nock’s  failure  to  ob- 
tain camphor,  is  owing  to  his  exjperinienting  on 
too  young  trees?  From  a short  paragraph  in  the 
“ Scientific  American”  for  August  18th,  1804,  1 
extract  the  following  : — 
“ The  Cainjihor  is  extracted  from  chips  taken 
from  the  roots  or  from  the  stem  near  the  root, 
the  w’ood  yielding  about  5 ])er  cent  of  Camphor, 
and  the  root  a larger  proportion. 
***  “ Plantations  of  young  trees  are  also  making 
and  are  well  taken  care  of,  and,  although  Cam- 
phor has  not  liitherto  been  extracted  from  trees 
le.ss  than  seventy  or  eighty  years  old,  it  is  ex- 
pected that  under  the  juesent  intelligent  m.anage- 
ment  e(iu,ally  good  results  may  be  re.alized  in 
twenty-five  or  thirty  years.” 
From  another  volume  of  the  “ Scientific  Ameri' 
can”,  I find  that  Camphorated  oil  has  been  used 
with  success  in  the  treatment  of  phthisic.al  patients, 
in  Rerlin. 
This  ]iaper  also  states  that  the  Camphor  tree 
is  being  domesticated  in  the  United  States,  and 
that  it  was  thought  it  could  be  produced  there 
in  (taying  ([uantitie.s. — Yours  faithfully, 
(t.  H.  G. 
[We  fear  Mr.  Green  is  correct ; for  Mr.  Nock 
referi-iug  to  tlic  Formosan  ju'ocess  writes  It 
is  exactly  as  I did  it  except  that  I allowed  no 
steam  to  esca))e,  and  had  a wooden  condenser. 
Perhaps  too  it  was  boiled  too  fast,  and  I did 
not  keep  on  for  in  days.  I’ll  have  an  earthen- 
ware top  made  and  try  again  as  soon  as  1 can 
liiul  time.”— Ed.  T.A.] 
THE  KUKULU  KORLE : IN  DEFENCE 
AGAINST  “HOW  IT  STRIKES  AN  OLD 
COLONIST.” 
Kukulu  Korle,  Rakwane,  Oct.  4th. 
DkAU  Sin, — In  the  Observer  of  ."nth  ultimo 
there  .api)e,ars  a long  descriptive  article  headed 
as  .above,  and  as  some  of  the  rem.arks  con- 
tained therein  are  veiy  dispaiaging  in  the  re- 
ference made  to  the  Kukulu  Koihq  and  “good, 
old,  hos])itablc  Rakwane,’'  1 cannot  refrain  from 
saying  a few  w(>rds  in  their  defence. 
It  is  much  to  bo  regretted  that  “ O.  C.” 
“ fain”  though  he  was,  could  not  have  passed 
down  through  Rakwane,  and  into  the  much 
desi»ised  Kukul  Korle,  to  refute,  with  his  own 
eyes,  the  erroneous  statements  he  has  imule, 
iuid  to  dispel  the  gloomy  picture  which  presented 
itself  to  his  over  iinaginati\  e brain. 
