Occasional Notes. 183 
in the bushes around, 6 or 8 having been killed in 
the course of an afternoon by our men. It is a well 
known fact that were it not for the aid of Colour-pro- 
te6tion whole races of insects would be doomed to 
extinction, which would of course mean so many inter- 
esting pages torn from nature's instructive volume. 
— C. A. Lloyd. 
The Rice Industry on the North Coast, Essequebo. — 
The constant rains that have fallen since the beginning 
of this year have caused an unusual demand for field 
labourers on the cane fields. The rise in the sugar 
market in the end of last year, and the satisfactory 
progress of the Bounties Conference giving better pros- 
pects for the future, have encouraged the sugar planters 
to increase their cultivation. This is the proper season 
for planting new cane land, and a great deal of it is 
being done on this Coast. With fair wages obtainable 
and paid weekly with the greatest regularity by the 
sugar planters, it is not to be wondered at that many 
labourers prefer working in the cane fields to waiting 
three months for the result of their own labour in the 
Rice fields. Still the Rice Industry on this Coast has 
quite held its own in the last six months. At Coffee 
Grove I am told that 120 acres are now in Rice cultiva- 
tion, and on Anna Regina there is just about the same. 
I have had, and am still having, applications for more 
land, but I discourage the people from spreading over 
too much ground. They are inclined to cultivate more 
than they can manage comfortably, and in consequence, 
there are frequently abandoned spots which we find 
very harmful in harbouring rats. These terrors of the 
