ENTOMOLOGY.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIII, Issue 4, 2 May 1912, Page 3

ENTOMOLOGY.

THE. WORLD'S DEBT TO SCIENCE. AIDING THE AGRICULTURIST. FEDERAL BUREAU SUGGESTED, (Sydney Tel egra ph.) The world's progress and achievements in entomology were reviewed at some length last evening by Mr W. W. Froggatt, Government Entomologist, in his presidential address at the annual meeting of the Linnean Society. He briefly touched upon the Government organisation, expert .staffs, and legislation employed in investigating and controlling insect pests in all the chief centres of the five vontiuents, indicating the important economic results obtained in this vast field of research. In referring more particularly to the Commonwealth, he dwelt upon and instanced the steadily increasing recognition of the importance of an alliance with science by the Governments of Australia. Man, by his interference with local conditions, said Mr Froggatt, and by his desired or undesired introductions to countries he had colonised, had succeeded in upsetting the stable equilibrium of faunas and floras. This wholesale disturbance of Nature's balance already entailed retribution in the shape of much effort and expense in controlling the new conditions which man's actions have brought about, 'f he was to escape penalties which, if ignored, were inevitable and dangerous. In discussing the evolution of commercial entomology, Mr Froggatt instanced some of the national efforts that had become necessary in order to cope with the depredations of insects which had been unintentionally introduced, and which flourished amazingly under new conditions; or of indigenous insects which asserted themselves in a menacing manner under profoundly altered natural conditions. The damage caused to wood-work by white ants in Australia ran into thousands of pounds- annually, but it was nothing in comparison to whal they did in countries where they attacked crops. Dr T. B. Fletcher, writing from Bengal, India, last month, said :—"With us they do ;> lot cf damage to railway sleepers, buildings,'etc., but this is insignificant compared with damage to crops. which may be put down at £10,000,000 annually for British India alone, at a conservative estimate. In many districts it is necessary to sow two or three times as a matter of ordinary routine, because the termites eat out the seed and young plants, and even after this take a toll of one-eighth tc one quarter of the growing crop." The white ants would be the most serious problem that the newly-created Department of Agriculture in the Northern Territory of Australia would haveto consider when planting the experiment:)] farms. Mr Froggatt wen! on to say that the cotton ball weevil was causing damage in the United States equal to at least £50,000,000 a year. Jn 10 years phylloxera utterly" destroyed 250,000 acres of vineyards in France, while from 1863 to 1896 it cost the country £100,000,000, and in 13 years decreased the production j of wine by 375,000,000 gallons. Thesugar cane beetle caused great dam- '

age to the sugar cane in Northern Queensland, and in one year the Colonial Sugar Co. paid collectors £3OOO for 31 tons of beetles, estimated to contain 10,000,000. In Fiji up to 30 per cent of the cane crop had been damaged by cane weevils, and at Sabasa, in one year, 3s per 1000 was paid for B,ooo*ooo beetles. Fruit flics had cost orchardists many thousands of pounds in Australia, while the olivo fly was responsible for the loss- of £1,909,000 worth of olive oil in Italy in 1900. Three varieties of grain weevils infested enormous quantities of stored grain in all parts, of the world, and rendered many thousands of bags of wheat and maize worthless. Enormous damage was also done by the presence of the flour moth in flour mills. These were a few examples o; the many insects that were always ax work, and had to be dealt with by the entomologist.

The question of officially taking up economic entomology to cope with the many insect pests that arc common to all the States of the Commonwealth. Mr Froggatt regarded as one that would have to be considered by the Federal Government, as it had alroad; formed an agricultural branch in the Northern Territory.

Mr Froggatt >vent on in this connection to speak of the entomologies! questions affecting the whole of Australia. First came the locust, or grass-hopper plague. “These insects, lie said, “usually breed and multiply in’ the dry interior, and, under favourable climatic conditions, increase so rapidly that they appear at irregular intervals in countless millions They eat everything before them, and usually travel towards the coastal districts as they roach maturity. No one, unless he has passed through a real locust invasion, can realise what it means. Until recent years, most of the damage they have done has boon confined to grass lands, and the gardens of homesteads, and though individual loss is often very great, it is not widespread, and has been borne without much comment, though often all the young green grass that is looked forward to by the pastoralist for fattening his early lambs, may bo cleared off just at the time of need. The time is rapidly approaching when Australia will have to deal with the locust question. As the farmer pushes out westward, the locust will be among his wheat paddocks. The clearing away of large belts of timber and scrub lias already made a difference, as they have an uninterrupted flight across the plains, where once they were turned aside. When this happens, drastic measures will have to bo taken, and the united action of all the States brought against the locust plague. “The sheep maggot-flies are another universal pest of equal importance to sheep-breeders in all the Australian States, and of national importance. The remarkable acquired habit of a number of our indigenous blowflies of blowing any soiled wool upon living healthy sheep is spreading to all parts of Australia, and where we had only! ■ two species of flies at work a few; years ago we now find four or live ■species doing similar damage. It has been estimated, on good authority, that this now and increasing pest has cost the sheep men of Australia nearly £1,000,000 annually, in loss of wool, sheep, and lambs, not including the increased expenditure in station management in dressing the blown sheep,” In a cursory concluding review of what had been attained in New South Wales, Mr Eroggart remarked: “The good results obtained from the administration of the internal laws of this State, in the compulsory inspection of orchards, have been very striking. In the first instance, it has led to the destruction of an enormous number of worthless, neglected fruit trees that were always a breeding ground for posts, and a menace to the commercial orchards. The owners have found it much simpler to cut down and burn them than to clean and bandage, as they are otherwise compelled to do by the regulations of the Vegetation Diseases Act. The compulsory collection and destruction of all windfalls, damaged and infected fruit lias reduced the ravages of the fruit flies to a minimum, and made a marked difference in the number of codlin moth grubs, while it has proved to the orchardists collectively the value of those methods, to which many of them are opposed. We have learned many things in the study of economic entomology in regard to the relation of plant and insect life. We have proved that if plants are well fed, planted in suitable, well-drained land, and the soil around them well cultivated to retain the surface moisture, they are very much bettor fitted to resist insect attacks than trees in which these conditions have been neglected. “With the improved modern methods of spraying we can satisfactorily destroy many of the worst insect pests. In the study of the chemical combination of the materials used for particular sprays, for the different groups of insects, we have made them more effective as contact or stomach poisons. For example, in arsenical poisons, Paris green was first used to destroy codlin moth ; it was found that arsenate of soda was, in many cases, a cheaper and hotter spray than Paris green; now,’ in arsenito of lead, wo have a much more perfect and longer lasting spray than both oar former chemicals. Fumigation with hydrocyanic acid gas is another very efficient agent in dcstro\ ing many injurious insects that suck up the sap and stick to the bark and foliage. In one application, every scale and aphis on a citrus tree can be destroyed; whereas the difficulty in the spraying of all evergreen trees is to wet all parts, and also the trees frequently require several such applications. Fumigation is also being largely adopted in • the destruction of household pests, such as bugs, cockroaches, etc.,

the penetrating power of tin'., volatile gas finding its way into the most minute cracks or crevices, and in about four hours will kill ah tJicso insects in every stage of development. It is also being used in the same nay in ships for fumigating tne cabii s, and the flour-millers are finding it very effective in destroying the Mediterranean flour-moth. “The entomologist has many i inputtant problems to deal witli at the piesent time in the study of insect pcSiK, but experience has taught h;;a t'ml when it has been carefully studied there is not one that cannot he checked and reduced, until it becomes oi no commercial importance.”