, 1908-02-08

What is a dummy horse 1t would re-
quire a thorough knowledge of at least one
branch of Entomology 10 answer that queS-
ton properly common peop,e, hike ourselves,
can only reply that it IS Il small insect,
which in its young stages IS a br8At-ied,
wjngiess little creature, and when fully
developed has black and red Wings
This general, and perhaps inaccnrate aescrip
ton will no doubt be recognized Ivy all
who know this little creature. In passing
it may be remarked that the "%jumbie that
ii lie such small horses must be Il special race,
something like the tiny fairies that for Euro
pean children sit on the petals Of the flowers.
Ordinary 'jumbies' must be more like ordi-
nary people. At all events they stand, walk
about, sit around, and ,chiStle, SO ut least we
have beer tod.
For loug long wears the junby-borsa has
lived III a p%ooticul dress, bat now he has
been rudely dragged out Of it and exposed
to the vulgar gaze as Il Cotton >taiaer,
We are told that he, and has, i'll swllms;
mount the cotton plants, or a all events get
there somehow; and live on the bolis, IN
serting the sucking tube, through which
they draw their food, into The young bon
and running the cotton. SO far rs we can
gather, the chief result is TO check the
growth OF the fibre, which moreover gets a
grey cast, opens slowly aud tends rather to
remain in a hard mass in the boil. The best
way to fight him seems to be to send chill
dren along the plant rows armed WITH
small tins ,Sutter tins and the like
partly filled with a little kerosene oil and
water, into which the children shake or
brush The small red colonies on the bolls.
This plan is succ ssiul with areas OF moder-
ate extent; but how far it could be adopted
on a large scale we cannot say.
1t is Il curiou, thing that the"jumbyhorses"
seem to be fond Of all plants Of the Malya-
ceous Family, the family t. which the cot
ton plant belongs. In places where there
are many Otaheite trees (1heSpe&{a Popul-
ne"( Tor example, they may be seen on tue
ground clustered in great numbers around
the fallen fruits OF the tree, on which they
presumably live. They may also be seen OH
the fruits OF some of the small mai
vaceous Weeds. We cannot remember hoy-
ing seen them on the othra; which
belongs to the same family but possibly
the r~oughaess of the plants surface prevents
their climbing to the feast in this case.
Perhaps from q sentimental point Of view
we ought to feel sorry for the j umby-horse',
for he has no doubt made a mistake IN tux
ing UP the role Of "Gotton-stainer'; he was
interesting before, but now, looking at his
case from a practical standpoint,w we can only
hope that in his struggle for existence in the
new capacity he VIII suffer a complete
defeat.
The general use Of galvanized iron for
roofs makes it likely that our towns Will
never again suffer from water famiues, such
as we read of III The past. At the SINE time
we ought not to forget that we are now en-
tering on the dry time of the year, and hat
the water supply ought therefore to be care
fully managed. Up TO the present tine we
have been getting frequent light showers,
and it may be presumed that most OF The
c|isterns in town are full or nearly SO some,
we know, are running over. This comforta-
be state of things would, however; soon he
al cred if Il few weeks Of dry weather should
set III. We don't know any special reason
for expecting such a time; and we hope not
to see it, but there can be no harm in keep
ing the weather eye" open, and seeing to it
that there is no meaningless waste of water.
We may be liberal to ourselves and our
neighbours as long as the present frequent
supplies from the clouds continue but as
soon Us we get a hin that these supplies are
shortening it will be in the interest of all
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