327 
Nov. T, 1897.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
respect to the insect enemies of more plants than 
coffee : — 
The following points in the life-history of the 
borer should be accurately made out : — 
The season at \'hich the perfect beetles appear. 
This will probably stand in some relation to the dry 
and wet season. 
The linhits of the perfect beetles, theii flight time, 
place of rest during the day ; their tendency, if any, 
to frequent flowers, oozing sap, diseased trees, &c. 
The at which they oxiposit. This is of import- 
annce. Probably oviposition is favoured by wounds in 
the bark. Special attention should be paid to the 
probability of the eggs being laid at pruning wounds, 
and the system of pruning adopted should be looked to 
with this object. 
The length of larval life and the length of time a tree 
will withstand injury without succumbing should also 
be investigated. 
The early signs of injury should be carefully made 
out, in order that infestation may be detected as soon 
as possible. 
General Suggestions. — The following general sugges- 
tions for treatment over and above those already given 
are based mainly on the assumption that information 
will be gained on the above points. 
Prevention of Egg-layiny. — All pruning and acciden- 
tal wounds should be tarred. Possibly egg-laying may 
be prevented at the usual situations by plastering the 
part of the bark usually selected for the purpose with 
clay and cow dung, or a similar mixture, or painting it 
with lime-white mixed with rice water, to make it 
adhere. This treatment has proved successful with 
other species of borers. 
Capture of the perfect Beetles. — This to be successful 
must be attempted after study of their habits and time 
of appearance. It may be done : — 
(a.) By placing sheets under the bushes, and shaking 
oS the beetles, in the early morning or whenever they 
are so sluggish as to drop. The beetles should then be 
collected and killed with boiling water. 
A convenient plan of collecting them from sheets is 
to fit a tin bucket with a wide funnel-shaped lid of tin, 
furnished at the centie with a short tube. The sheets 
are shaken on to the lid, the beetles diop through 
the tin tube, [and cannot escape until the lid is re- 
moved. 
(&.) By setting baits for them, and collecting them 
from the baits. This cannot be done unless their 
habits show that some kinds of. bait will serve to 
attract. 
(c.) By providing logs of any tree which they will 
attack, ringed trees, coffee shrubs which have 
been condemned and are dying or have been 
ringed for them to lay their eggs in. These “ tree 
traps ” should be provided before the flight period and 
removed before the beetles in them have bred out, or 
they will do more harm than good. 
Preservation of attached Shrubs . — This can only be 
done, if at all, by attentive examination so as to detect 
the early signs of injury when the larva is still feeding 
under the thin baik. That these early stages can be 
detected with practice I have little doubt ; whether it 
can be done with sufficient rapidity to make it practic- 
able is more questionable. If such a patch is detected, 
the bark should be cut away and the larva tumbled out ; 
it will soon die if exposed to the air and light. The 
cut part should then be tarred. If the patch has been 
opened after the larva has finished its superficial 
burrowing, and gone deep into the wood, it might pos- 
sibly be killed with a wire, or by w'etting the burrow 
with kerosene, which will penetrate. But these 
methods are not very pmcticable, and I regard the 
surface burrowing as the most important. With the 
exception of these methods the larval and pupal stages 
are not open to measures calculated to get rid of them. 
The suggestions made in the foregoing pages cover 
all the points by which success in the treatment of the 
borer appears to me likely to be obtained. That they 
are all practicable under local conditions is unlikely ; 
but they are all measures which have proved of ser- 
vice in* other countries and with other host plants 
Particular attention is drawn to the necessity for in- 
vestigating the antecedent causes which may have 
favoured the infestation, to the desirability of study- 
ing the relation of shade-trees to the infestation, to 
the great importance of destroying all woody mate- 
rial, shrubs, &c., which may harbonr the larvae and are 
past recovery, to the importance of attending to prun- 
ing wounds, and of catching the perfect insects bv 
shaking down. 
PLANTING NOTES. 
“ Royal Gabdens, Kew."— Bulletin of Miscellaneous 
Information. Contents for April is as follows: 
DLiii.— Mycologic Flora of the Rojal Gardens, 
Kew; DLIA.— Spindle Tree; dlv.— Miscellaneous 
Notes; Sir Robert Meade; Sir John Thurston ; Seed 
Distribution; Botanical Magazine; Flora of British 
Central Africa ; Drift Seeds from the Keeling 
Islands ; Algas in the Kew Herbarium ; Broom Root ; 
Snowdrop disease ; Canna disease ; Double Rice • 
Sorghum Sugar. Bulletin of Miscellaneous informa- 
tion for May and June has the following contents 
Insects destructive to Plants in West Africa ; Fnrit- 
growing at the Cape ; Canaigre ; Extraction of Gutta 
Percha from Leaves ; Wine Production in France ; 
U.S. National Heibuium ; Completion of Flora of 
British India ; Miscellaneous Notes. Bulletin of 
Miscellaneous information for July 1897 has the 
following contents Marram Grass ; Agricultural 
Depression ; Fat Hen in Australia ; Eucalyptus Timber 
for Street Paving; Grafting Sugar Cane; Grama 
Grass ; Flora Capensis ; Hand-list of Tender Mono- 
cotyledons ; Fiji Ivory Nuts ; Additions to list of Kew 
Publications, 1841-95; Miscellaneous Notes. Bulletin 
of Miscellaneous Information. Contents for August 
and September are as follows :—plxxv.— Diagnoses 
African®, X ; dlxxvi.— Miscellaneous Notes ; King 
of Siam ; Botanical Magazine ; Key Plan • Water 
Lily Pond ; Tampico Jalap. ’ 
Timehei. The Journal of the Royal Agricultural 
and Commercial Society of British Guiana, June 1897 
edited by James Rodway, F.L.S. Contents Papers’ 
—Nesting of some Guiana Birds, by C. A. Lloyd • 
Early English Colonies in Trinidad, by Hon. n! 
Darnell Davis, C.M.G. ; Agriculiure in 1829 bv 
William Hilhouse ; First Impressions of the Colonv- 
by \V. Arthur Sawtell ; Tobacco and Cotton Cultiva- 
tion in the British West India Colonies, by William 
H. Burnley; Ruin, by the Editor; The Result of 
Recent Scientific Researches into the Agricultural 
Improvement of the Sugar Cane, by J. B Harrison 
M.A., F-I-C., F.G.S., F C.S., etc. ; i?he Life HEtory 
of an East Indian m British Guiana, by the Rev 
J. G. Pearson, Note on the Arrangement of Sugar Cane* 
Experiments, by J.B. Harrison, M.A. &c., &c. "Reports 
of Society’s Meetings, from January to June, 1897. 
Mr. Chambkrlain and Sisal.— It was recently 
reported says that Mr. Chamberlain had abandone'd 
hi.s .visa! plantation in the Bahamas as a losino- 
speculation. The annual report of the Governor" 
Sir W. F. Haynes Smith, which has just been 
issued, tends to confirm the general impression that 
a number of people Imrnt their fingers over this 
extravagantly-boomed West Indian industry The 
Governor observes “ The cultivation of sisal 
plantations is abandoned in some places, whilst in 
others it is reported to be on the increase. The 
prospects for this new industry are now becoming 
more clefined, and although it has absolutely failed 
to fulfil the anticipations once formed of it, there 
seems to be less reason to fear that it w ill die 
out altogether, and some reason to hope that it 
may in time become a .sinnll but well-established 
industry returning fair ]Jiulits to those enga<'-ed 
in it. ^ 1 iiie-apple cultivation in the islands i.s more 
promising.’' The Governor reports this industry 
to be increasing and that large growers are niakinc^ 
substantial profits. ® 
