NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Colonist, Volume LI, Issue 12409, 26 November 1908, Page 2

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

The Sentiment of Ownership.

To own (writes an Australian agriBultiiralauthority) .a farm is the ambition of practcally every tiller of the soil.; -Convincing proofs of this. ; t ,Bfaj^ent;r::ai«..mei;-wiih\every' vdsy.'farmers may, thropih circumstances pay- rent, wort oh shares, or carry .under sfti»s other, arrangement with 1 landholders. They, however, look forward-, to; the -time: ; when iijiey can secure^ farms of . they "own.:-: Nor -is this ip be .wondered: at. Ideal-conditions exist only when each operation leads tm towards suc-

cess. In agriculture every incentive to work on up-to-date lines is given to the man who tills his own soil. He works willingly, with a knowledge that ; full profits are his at the end of each season's balance. No rent to pay, no landlord to please, he can start each year's work with a- desire tD improve his .holding and increase its productiveness. * Every load of manure and each pound of fertiliser addtfd'to the soil goes' to x keep up the vitality of his own land. A. well planned homestead, good buildings, substantial fences, handy gates, water tanks, etc., give an appearance of thrift and prosperity and add increased value to his farm. Fruit Pest Parasites. Mr W. W. Froggatt, New South Wales Government entomologist, who was commissioned by the Govern T merits of New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and. South Australia to investigate European and American methods of - keeping insect pests in check, has recently forwarded the Victorian Government entomologist (Mr French) some particulars upon lihe results of his tour. The report is by no means favourable jo the introduction of parasites. During his 1 toiir Mr Froggatt has visited Califbr-' nia, the Hawaiian Islands, and a number of other places where parasites have had every opportunity q£ demonstrating their possibilities, as. pest destroyers. In no instance have theresults achieved been commensurate with the expense of establishing the colonies of parasites 'In California he reports that he found .the codlin 'moth to v ;be just as bad where there was no spraying as it is in Australia, despite the. fact that a ntimber of Mr Compere's parasites nave been liberat- • ed there. "In spite of the money and work, 1 ' he writes to the Victorian entomological branch, "that have been expended during the -last .20 years in the State of California upon the introduction , and propagation of foreign parasite insects, to destroy scale and other injurious insects, with one. or two exceptions they have very little' commercial value, for unless they are effective enough to render the work of sprayng and fumigation unnecessary, they might as well not exist. I have found all the orchard arid garden pests (with the exception of fruit flies) quite as abundant and destructive in California 'as in Australia,^!^ wherever one goes he finds ; .f umigatibh tenffi. ' The contention that where parasites were introduced iiwould-'riot be necessary to take any mechanical methods to destroy insect pests, is certainly not borne out by tlie present condition of orclwding and orchards in: California. There is no question that the native, arid not the introduced, chalcid wasps' parasites are doing as much good work in : devouring the percentage ;f scale insects that are their natural food, but, as for either native or in-b-01 uced parasites exterminating n 3PSt when once it is firmly estib'Viei~it has never happened yet. '!!i • c> llm moth parasite has done' tint him; ontfide the ihsectarium." :; '