150 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[Sept, i, 1897 . 
few years in Edinburgh, and then in 1879 he 
and his family went to Rome and passed the 
winters there till 1884, when Mr. Harper bought 
a small property “ Torre el Praeto ” near Florence, 
and spent tlie rest of his life there save for 
occasional visits to Scotland. Mr. Harper was much 
interested in agriculture in Italy, and began to 
pay special attention to the cultivation of Olives 
and Vines; but his health failed, and after a 
trying illness of five months, he passed away in 
April 1889. 
Physically, Mr. Alexander Harper Avas one of 
the many line strong young men that came from 
Aberdeenshire in the “forties and fifties.” He 
has told Mr. A. L. Cross that Avhen he first 
arrived in Ceylon, he could fell forest alongside 
of the very best Kandyan axemen ; and so 
active did he continue in his habits that Avhen 
he became a Visitina Agent he Avould often turn 
up at estates 20 miles from Kandy, Avhile the 
Superintendent was preparing to muster his coolies 
in the early morning. 
To the last his interest in Ceylon was Avarm 
and deep, though there can be but fcAV in the 
Isl uid now Avho can recall the tall manly form 
of the late Mr. Alexander Harper. One heats a 
great deal in the present day of Social Brotlier- 
hood ; but Ave fancy (from all we have heard — 
not from himself of course, but from others) 
of Mr. Harper’s good deeds, that there have been 
few men Avho made it more their aim to keep 
the helping hand always outstretched than the 
late Mr. Alexander Harper : — 
’Tis ever wrong to say a gootl man dies. 
Agricultural Pests : 
WITH METHODS OF PREVENTION, 
BY MISS E. A. ORMEROD 
(Late Consulting Entomologist to the 
Royal Agricultural Society of 
England.) 
(Concluded.) 
VHI.— LiATtE Fluke, &c. 
Slugs are injurious to almost CA'ery kind of crop. 
They belong to the division Mollusca. The true 
slugs may be generally described (when extended 
or in movement) as being long, more or less spindle- 
shaped, cylindrical or tumid, head prominent, “tenta- 
cles” (commonly known as horns) four in number, 
and two eyes placed on the tips of the uppermost 
pair of horns. When at rest or alarmed they draw 
themselves together into a lump. The field, or milky 
slug, L. agrestis, is a somewhat spindle-shaped kind, 
about an inch and a third long, grey in colour, and 
Avith milky slime, and is very common. The Arions, 
or black slugs, are distinguishable by the skin being 
Avrinkled, and the shield on the back shagieened. 
Avion ater is as much as four inches long. The 
colour of these two kinds of Arions is very variable, 
and they are stated to lay their eggs seperately under 
ground. 
One very important point to be considered in 
methods of prevention is the circumstance that the 
slug can exude slime, so that it can “ moult off, ” 
as it were, a coating of lime, or other obnoxious 
dressing thrown on it, and thus (quite getting rid 
of it together with the slime) be no worse for one 
application of any ordinay dressing This moult- 
ing the slug can do a few times successively, but 
after the operation has been repeated two or three 
(or at least a very few times), the creature requires 
an invertal to regain the power ; the slime reser- 
voirs, or power of exuding slime, are exhausted 
for the time being, and the obnoxious dressing 
consequently takes effect on the skin of the slug 
and kills it. 
Where there is bad slug-attack in fields, attention 
is particularly needed to these points. On un- 
occupied land, such a heavy dressing of gas-lime, 
or quicklime or salt, may be put on, that wher- 
ever the slug crawls there is the obnoxious stuff, 
and it soon loses its slime-producing power and 
perishes. But very often, where crops are infested 
lime is only thrown in the middle of the day, or 
at any convenient time, just when the slugs are 
sheltered from the dressings falling on them, and 
as it soon slacks it does very little towards getting 
rid of the infestation. I have seen the slug resting 
as comfortably in the slacked lime as it Avould under 
a stone. Or again, if one dressing is given in the 
morning, or when the slugs are out at feed, it often 
happens that it is not followed up by another before 
the slugs can protect themselves. To do good the 
dressing should be thrown in the evening, when the 
slugs are at feed, and again the following morning. 
If the slugs should re-appear next evening, the 
dressing should be given again ; but if it has been 
properly, applied, probably there will be no need. 
One or more kinds of the marsh, or water snails 
play a most seriously injurious part as “hosts” of 
the liver fluke of sheep, during the early stages of 
its life. The Limnanis truncatulus is the kind which 
is especially recorded as infested by the fluke in 
its early stages. Regarding presence of infestation 
in the L. joereger, there has been difference of opinion. 
These marsh snails wander about, and both kinds 
are nearly amphibious ; they may be found in damp 
grass as well as in pools. 
During the years in which I had personal know- 
ledge of habits of LinmKus at Sedbury Park, in 
West Gloucestershire, L. pereger was excessively pre- 
valent in small held ponds or drinking places, where 
floating water plants, weeds round the bank, and more 
or less mud, according to weather or season, gave 
every encouragement to their increase; but we only 
met with the truncatulvs in one of these small pools. 
It AVould have been of considerable scientific interest 
(if we could have had technical examination by an 
expert) to find whether, in circumstances so congenial 
to pereger, the fluke infestation was perfected in it 
up to maturity, which it does not appear to reach 
in this species of snail, as observed in captivity. But, 
as a coincidence at least (whether of this, or of, 
great amount of rabbit presence), our sheep were 
constantly affected by rot to so serious an extent 
that it was stated by the bailiff he “ never killed 
one with a sound liver.” Neither snails nor flukes 
are connected with insect life, but this one 
parasitic attack is given in some degree of detail 
as an example of the very different successive forms 
which some of our farm infestations go through, 
and also of the very different localities in which 
they are to be found during their progress to ma- 
turity. 
The following information is abridged from the 
history of the liver fluke, recorded from his own 
observations by Prof. A. P. Thomas. — “ The liver 
fluke. Fasciola hepatica, lives in livers of various 
vertebrate animals, and, in this country, especially 
of sheep, as well as of rabbits and hares ; it averages 
from about an inch to an inch and a quarter in 
length, and in shape may be described as not un- 
like a little sole, in width about half its length, flat, 
and largest towards the head end. At the tip of 
