The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-11-10

caused serious loss to sugar plantations
Aside from his official duties, wherein
he displayed much efficiency as well al
extraordinary tact and judgment, the
late Mr.. Craw was much respected by
all who came in contact with him, anC
his loss as an entomolOgist and as the
official Quarantine Plant Inspector is
in very many respects irreparable. +"
Years Work in Agriculture.
Acting Director Noel DEER, of the
Division of Agriculture and Chemistry
presented report showing the great
amount of work done in his department
| during the year and the substantial
and direct benefit it had been to the
F! planters. Statistics of work done
showed that 1862 analyses of fertilizers,
soils, sugars and mill by-products had
been made for various planta tons,
while as a result of the analyses of i'm
ported fertilizers a saving to the plan,
tations of $5406.50 had been made dur
ing the twelve months
Weekly mill reports from twenty-nine
plants had been checked and tabulated
and circulated among the contributing
mills, and tabulated reports on mill con
| troll work by the station chemists had
| been supplied the plantation agencies
| interested
The results of experiments in fertiliz-
ing and stripping, the shipments of new
varieties of cane, hybridizations and
field work were given in a condensed
form and list of the new books in the
station library was included.
Distribution Of Friendly Parasites.
The report of the Director of the Di-
vision Of Entomology was an interest
ing one, dealing with the work being
done abroad by the travelling entomolo
gists and the distribution in Hawaii of
the parasites sent in for breeding. The
report said of this last work:
"Colonies of one or more species of
Histers, sent from the Malay Islands by
Mr.. Muir, have been liberated on some
of the plantations on all the islands.
These listers are very long lived in
their adult state, and as they have pow
erful wings flying, no doubt, at night
they are liable to readily spread of
their own accord when they become suf
fciently numerous They breed quite
readily in captivity in cane attacked by
borer, and seem very hardy. Though
tenacious of life under most conditions
they are very easily killed by exposure
to dryness, when they are removed from
the cane sticks.
E'Cages containing parasites of leaf
hopper have been sent out from time to
time to plantations, when they have
been asked for. The distribution of the
most important egg-parasites has long
since become universal. The climatic
conditions of the past season have, in
my opinion, been very favorable for the
increase of canehopper In a few cases,
in which, I have no doubt, large num-
bers of leaf-hoppers have collected from
over wide area and invaded fields of
young cane, they have done some dam
age locally, the eggs having been laid
in great numbers and already Matched
out when few natural enemies are in
the field Such eases, when they occur
in the summer months, are dangerous,
because the affected fields may supply
the neighbOring fields or plantations
with a large crop of mature leaf-hop-
pers just at the time when the female
hopper produces the greatest number of
eggs most rapidly
g As has been mentioned above, few
colonies of an ant-like parasite on leaf
hopper from Mexico have been already
distributed, and the distribution will be
continued. Three generations have now
been raised from the solitary female
which was bred from cocoon sent over
by Mr. Koebele The distribution of
cages of leaf-hopper parasites in new
fields of cane should be kept up by the
managers in the manner pursued in the
past. AS soon as any hoppers, even
though few, appear in new field this
should be made, and on
where hoppers flourish best,
let the distribution be made whether
hoppers are noticed or not. If many
hoppers have migrated to a new field
and laid many eggs the number of cages
should be more numerous
1t is only in this way that we can hope
to make up in some degree for a con-
dition of affairs Ct mean in the culti-
walton of cane felds) that does not ex-
ist in a state of nature. Even when
everything possible is done to prevent
loss, there will be times when some. loss
will occur, for seasons will come, which
will favor an unusual increase of the
leaf hopper. For instance, a year or
two ago, in FIJI, have been informed
that the cane-hopper peculiar to those
islands, usually no particular pest, be,
came numerous to an extent never pre-
viously known, in spite of its natural
enemies. The money that is now being
spent to control the gypsy moth in the
Eastern States is expended with the
hope of producing the conditions that
are found in Europe, whence this pest
was introduced. In Europe, periodical
y, as is well known, the gypsy moth
occurs in such numbers as to be quite
bad pest, in spite of its numerous enc
mics. Yet these conditions would gladly
be accepted in America, where this in,
sect is not a periodical. but continual
and ever-spreading pest, for the control
Of which by artificial means vast sums
Of money have been spent in the past.
The Kohala Spider.
In the discussion which followed the
reading of this report, Manager Renton
asked for information incidental to the