them by hand or knock them down with sticks. The young lotusts 
usually live in grass and scrub and if these animals appear on the 
estate any of this should be cut down in the neighbourhood. Quite 
a small patch of long grass and weeds will form a home for a num- 
ber of these locusts. 
Some seedlings I planted out experimentally quite young in a 
grassy wet spot suffered from a complexity of pests. Beside the fun- 
gus alluded to I found in the evening some small brown slugs about 
an inch long very slimy and active which nibbled off the shoots, and 
one of the common bag-worms, a caterpillar living in a grey silk 
conical case, was attacking the leaves ; small grasshoppers too 
were attacking the leaves. Many leaf-eating insects, when their 
special food runs short, will attack any plant that happens to be 
near, and do more or less harm. It is, therefore, not advisable to 
plant out seedlings in uncleared ground too young. Stumps or 
plants about 6 feet tall seem to escape all these kinds of vermin, the 
leaves being too high for them to find. — Editor. 
FRIGE OF RUBBER STILL RISING. 
A note in the Ceylon Weekly Times records a rise in price of rub- 
ber in Ceylon from general estates to 6/4I-, fine Para .at the time 
fetching 5/4^. Similar prices have been obtained in the Malay 
Peninsula and we hear of one estate which has beaten the Ceylon 
records at 6/6. High prices are expected to continue for some 
time. Meanwhile a good many estates ip the Peninsula are pro- 
fiting by the demand and, we understand, are making a good haul, 
which will go a long way to counteract losses in bygone years on 
Coffee and the like. * 
THE PRICE OF RUBBER, 
A Rise. 
The notification issued on December 4th by India-rubber manu- 
facturers of another 10 per cent rise in mechanical goods has doubt- 
less come as unwelcome intelligence to those primarily affected by 
it. Yet there wall be few, says the Engineer, who will dispute its 
justification in the light of the continued rise in price of the raw 
material. Para rubber has recently touched figures hitherto without 
parallel, and the ingenuity of the manufacturers has been taxed to 
the utmost to cope with the altered situation. The difficulties* that 
have been met with are reflected in the report of the big Silvertown 
Company, which, with an increase of sales, shows a considerable 
falling off in profits. Buyers of rubber goods may feel assured that 
the recent advance in price was determined upon as a matter of 
stern necessity, and is in no way the outcome of any desire on the 
