60 BULLETIN T46, U. S. DEPAETMEXT OE AGRICULTT7KE. 
pose that burning the trash would give us any real protection from the borer. 
Cultural conditions in Louisiana are so different from ours that the burning 
of the trash is practically a necessity and it is universally practiced. 1 We do 
not. however, find that this gives them any immunity from the borer. On the 
contrary, they suffer fully as much as we do. This very likely may be due to 
the fact that burning destroys borer parasites as well as borers. There is good 
reason to believe that here in the TVest Indies borer parasites of one kind or 
another are sufficiently abundant to play an important part in holding this pest 
in check. There is no point more urgently in need of careful investigation. 
Until it is fully determined it will be impossible to outline a really satisfactory 
campaign against the cane borer. * * * On certain fields it becomes advis- 
able to burn the trash in order to be able by thorough cultivation to kill out 
pernicious grasses that would otherwise ruin the fields. TThen and where and 
how much to burn are questions that must always tax the best judgment of the 
ad m inistrator. If judiciously done on a small scale it is often an advantage, 
but if universal burning of the trash should be adopted on the advice of our 
scientific friends it would surely result in the financial ruin of the majority of 
the plantations in Cuba and of many in Porto Rico. 
It is believed that Prof. Earle will be proved correct in concluding 
that burning or not burning trash is a matter for the mature judg- 
ment of the plantation manager, in Louisiana as well as in other 
countries. 
EXPERIMENT WITH THE HAWAHAX BEETLE BOBEE PAEASTTE. 
The work of the entomologists of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' 
Association Experiment Station is too well known to need any ex- 
tended description. Suffice it to say that under the auspices of the 
very progressive sugar planters of Hawaii the world was searched 
for parasites of insects destructive to sugar cane: that they foimd 
many parasites: and that they succeeded in establishing many of 
them in the cane fields of Hawaii. The injury from insects has 
been greatly reduced and millions of dollars' worth of sugar is being 
saved annually. 
The parasite which contributed largely to the control of the weevil 
borer {Rhahdocnemis \Sph&ruyphorus\ obscwrus Boisduval) was a 
tachinid fly (Ceromasia sphenophari Viileneuve) which was brought 
from Xew Guinea. As the habits of this beetle borer in boring 
through the cane stalks are much the same as those of the moth borer 
in Louisiana, the junior author suggested that Ceromasia be tried 
against the moth borer. The same suggestion was made later by 
Dr. L. 0. Howard and Dr. TV. D. Hunter, of the Bureau of Ento- 
mology. Mr. Frederick Muir, of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Ex- 
periment Station, who had discovered the parasite and introduced it 
into Hawaii, was consulted, and gave his opinion that it would not 
attack the moth borer. He stated that he had seen the moth borer 
(Diatraea sp.) and the beetle borer working together, and that Cero- 
masia confined itself to its beetle host. 
1 Prof. Earle is writing of conditions in Porto Rico and Cuba, with which he is more 
familiar, and takes it for granted that burning the trash in Louisiana, at that time 
universally recommended, is a Decessity. 
