The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1893-09-09
MEETING OF TIE BOARD OF
AGRICULTURE AND FOR
ESTRY YESTERDAY.
Different Blights and Insect
Pests.

NAJ INV JN@N"J oANNAAONh oS
the executive building. There
were present Messrs. w. G.. Irwin,
A. Herbert, John Ena, Commits
sioner Marsden and the Hon. J. A.
King, minister of the interior.
A communication W. I'd from
Prof. Koebele. The lessor Of
fered his services me board for
the sum of $3' year. The
offer was accepted conditionally-
provided the government and
Planters company agreed to bear
the expense.
The following interesting report
of Commissioner Marsden was read
and ordered printed:
His Excellency J. A. KING, PresI-
dent Of the Bureau of Agriculture
and Forestry.
SIR: / have the honor to- submit
for your consideration the following
report on the different blight+ and in
sect pests, that are so seriously Injur-
ing the vegetation of these islands.
One OF the most Injurious is q brown
beetle, a species of scdrebdctdeS,
which there is every reason to- believe
was imported from Japan. The raw
ages of this beetle are truly alarming.
AT first IL seemed to confine its atten-
ton To- the young and tender leaves
of the rose bush, but as its members
increased so did its appetite. 1t takes
in its bill of fare, orange, avocado
pear, bananas, grap.-vines, besides
many ornamental trees and shrubs.
Even the hard, fiinty leaves of some
of the palms do not escape. Nothing
has been devised that has had any
success in diminishing the numbers
of this beetle. 1t only works at night
and disappears in the daytime. Many
thousands are caught every night, but
their numbers seem To he continually
OH the Increase. It IS only question
of time, (even with the most stringent
regulations) when this beetle will
make its way to- the other islands. 1t
penetrates into the houses after the
lights are lit, and nothing is more
likely, than sooner or later, some of
them will be carried in freight to the
other islands. No account has as yet
been heard of this beetle attacking
sugar cane, but IL seems likely Gudg-
ing from past eXperiences), that the
sugar cane will be attacked. If this
beetle once gets an appetite for young
cane, our planters Will suffer great
loss. There seems to be 10 possible
way to get rid of this destructive bee
tie, except by introducing an enemy
that will prey upon it. 1t is possible
to protect Individual plants by dust
ing the leaves with poisonous pow
ders, but that does not destroy the
beetle, he simply goes to some other
plant and deyOurs it. n consignment
of toads from California is expected
which will no doubt prey upon the
beetle, but from the past experience
of those people who have brought
toads to this country, it is doubtful
if they will thrive and increase here.
Your commissioner has sent some OF
these beetles with several other speci-
mems of blight and insects to Professor
c.. V. Riley, Chief EntomOlOgist of the
u. s. State Department of Agrlcul-
ture at Washington, ID. c., with
letter asking il the department. has
any knowledge of any night Tying
birds, that would be likely to prey
-up6n the beetle. The reply will be
seems to be no doubt but that we are
indebted to Japan for this destructive
insect, and as the Japanese say that
i'm their country il does not do any
thing like the damage ii does here,
il seems probable that an enemy eX-
lists there, which was not brought
here with the beetle. In what form
this enemy. may be. whether BIRD,
reptile or parasite, only an eXamlna-
tion of that country can determine.
Another destructive pest, Is the
white cottony blight (pulvinaria psi
dill maskell). This blight is very in
furious to our citron trees. 1t also
attacks the mango, breadfruit, avo-
cado pears and many ornamental
trees and shrubs. 1t also attacks the
coffee tree, and is harder to Kill by
spraying than the old coffee blight,
that has been known for many years
i'm the coffee districts of these islands.
The puIvinaria If once introduced into
the coffee districts will be a severe
check to any enterprise In coffee
nIantinO, as it will entirely prevent
the coffee tree from bearing, unless
the trees are subjected to continual
spraying, which would prove so
costly, as to render the industry I'M
profitable, and although the regula-
ton of the bureau is very strict, IL IS
certain sooner or later to be evaded by
some INSCRIPTIONS persons (who
think more of little personal gratiti-
cation, than the welfare of the COM
munity) smuggling infected plants to
the other islands.
One small cottOny cell of the PUl-
I'iUQTfu concealed among the leaves
of q plant would be quite enough to
infect a whole district, as each cell
contains hundreds of eggs which soon
hatch, and the young insects (which
are almost invisible 10 the naked eye,
roam over the plant and attach them
selves to the leaves, buds and fruit,
and in less than week mature and
Law thousands of eggs, which soon
hatch and spread TO other plants. They
also descend to the roots and multiply
there. 1t is only by continual spray
ing that individual trees can be kept
Iii anything like healthy condition.
A tree can be sprayed with the best
known compound, and every vestige
of the blight destroyed, and in less
than ten days the blight will be seen
again, necessitating a re-spraying of
the tree Many plans have been tried
to keep the blight from ascending the
trunks of trees, but without avail. On
trees that have had their trunks paint
ed with a sticky substance, the blight
has been found adhering to the wind
ward side, proving that the blight
moves with and by the wind.