Evening bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1895-1912, 1912-01-12
FREAR in DENIAL
OF SEVERN
(Coptinusd from Page y


be propagated on this fruit. SO great
is this anxiety that number Of re.
quests have been lodged with the pre-
sident of the board to have this work
stopped and the publication or an
nouncement of any data on this qucs.
ton thus far secured withdrawn. The
president of the board feels that IL an
affirmative report on this question
should get out great damage would
result to the banana industry and the
college would be brought under very
severe criticism.
at is my personal opinion that the
question is of great scientific import
ance whether negative or positive re-
suits are secured. However, II Is MY
duty to convey to you the wishes of
the president of the board that the
investigations on this subject be
stopped and the publication or an
nouncements of the results obtained
be withdrawn. If the Mediterranean
fruit fly can breed in bananas or pine.
apples II will mean millions to the
United States II il ever gets into Cali.
fornia, compared with the hundreds
to the Hawaiian Islands.
"(Signed) JOHN W. GILMORE"
Prof. SEVERN further declared that
previous to getting this notice from
the regents. he had received letter
from Governor Frear, who made prac.
tically the same statement, and s,ls.
gested that If II was a fact that The
experiments were being carried out.
he had better quit. This letter was
based on the allegation that II an al.
firmative report as to the breeding Of
the flies in bananas and pincapplcs
for the community.
In his address yesterday, Prof Sew
erin refrained from giving out any IT,.
suits of his work directly. but IN.
directly, by means of illustrations, he
indicated Enthusiastically that he b, d.
lievcd his experiments have not been
such as to cndangcr any interest here.
The experiments carried out by FRO.
fcssor SEVERN as told during his
speech yesterday afternoon are rs fol.
lows:
Taking as his ground the common
statement that the acid Juice of the
green banana would Kill the eggs or
at least prevent the maggots from
Matching out, he instigatcd series Of
experiments along these lines. He
secured female fly which he die.
| sectCd and taking the eggs ont pat
them into the green skin of the ban.
ana. Others at the same time We're
placed into the skin of n California
orange 50 that If either lot came n
| anything there would he good cvi.
dencc to work along. There was Of
course the possibility that the eggs
were not fCrtiii2cd and also that juices
from certain glands in the body had
not been poured on them. He has.
| however, succeeded In breeding eggs
| from flies In captivity.
Other bananas were treated in tile
same manner and then immersed in
fourteen inches of Grange Juice.
Part OF the banana peel was rcmoy-
| ed and hundreds of eggs placed in the
| soft fruit. The late Mr. Terry of the
sugar planters association carried ont
a similar experiment but Professor
SEVERN had never heard the result.
| Getting fruit flies to brcs4i in green
bananas as an experiment does not
say" continued the professor. that
| they will do so when the fruit are
growing in the open In the ordinary
way. If flies would breed in fruit that
they were not accustomed to merely
by the fact that some of them were
once bred out during an experiment,
what wonderful strides biologists
would make with one generation.
! THE situation is just the same as il
| swallowed couple Of fruit fly ma ,.
COTS There would be people next who
would say that the fruit ny was go,
ing to use human beings as para,
site"
| Various experiments have also been
carried out with pincapples, he stated
but as to what the results were, he
said he is bound down by his instruc.
tons from the board of regents not
to say anything. The experiment.
have been carried out, hut until the
word is given the public will not know
how they turned out, he said
The results OF a number of expert,
ments carried through with Kerosene
traps were given by t. professor and
the final summing up seems to show
that this method of dealing with the
| fly does not give results that are at
| all beneficial
Over a thirty-fye days experiment
| during which time eleven cans OF
kerosene were hung in different varla-
ties of trees 1O,2O3 male fruit flies
were captured and thirty-slx females.
The average worked out at 29l males
caught every day and one female.
In another thirty.five days test dur.
ing which time the trees were spray.
cd with mixture of arsenatc of lead,
brown sugar and water, the figures