INSECTS INJURIOUS TO SUGAR CANE. 
7 
food appearing. Last year, however, the cane being so very forward 
upon the appearance of the beetle, both stubble cane and plant cane 
were at his disposal. 
REMEDIES. 
Until the earlier stages of the beetle can be more fully studied than 
they have been, we shall have to confine our energies to destroying the 
adult insect. The first method of destroying it is suggested by the 
readiness with which it is attracted to light ; the testimony that it is so 
attracted being very conclusive. Hence we shall advise the use of trap 
lanterns. It has been urged in many cases that the use of these lanterns 
attracts from surrounding plantations many more insects than are de- 
stroyed ; but even supposing this to be true, it would only be necessary 
to secure unity of action among a few neighboring planters having the 
same interests, and the results would certainly far more than repay the 
expenditure. It is a very easy matter to experiment in this direction, 
and such experiment should be made. The success had with trap-lan- 
terns in Central Texas, in protecting the cotton crop from cotton- worms 
and boll-worms as mentioned in the Report on Cotton Insects, p. 263, 
would seem to be a surety for their probable success here. The form of 
lantern in use there is very simple. The whole apparatus consists of 
three pieces ; 1st, a shallow tin pan 15 by 10 inches ; 2d, a common ker- 
osene lamp with a half-inch wick and large enough to burn all night ; 
3d, a common lantern top large enough to place over the lamp and pro 
tect it from wind and rain. The lamp is placed in the middle of the 
pan and the latter filled with water, ou which has been put a small 
quantity of coal oil. The whole thing is placed upon a post high enough 
to be above the top of the crop. The cost of a lamp is 50 cents, and the 
cost of burning it and labor about 35 cents a month. A great many 
patent lanterns have been devised, many of them very complicated, but 
the simple ones seem to work just as well. A simple closed tin recep- 
tacle for oil, with a wick tube and soldered to the bottom of a pan, the 
whole mounted on a stake which can be driven into the ground, is often 
used. It will not be necessary to figure any of the lanterns which have 
been patented, as any planter can devise one on the above principle 
which will meet all requirements. There is no doubt whatsoever but 
that the very best substance to put into the pan is water, with a table- 
spoonful or so of kerosene oil. If a beetle, in the course of its flight 
about the lamp, once falls into the oil ou the surface of the water, its 
death is assured. The water is used simply to economize the oil. 
Considerable has been said among the planters of the Teche region 
with regard to the use of lime as a protection against the cane beetle. 
In fact we learn that this substance was placed by one planter around 
the roots of infested cane during the summer of 1880, with the appar- 
ent effect of driving the beetles away. But as they also disappeared 
about this time upon plantations where this substance had not been 
used, the experiment cannot rank as a conclusive oue. Many planters 
