[ { "id": 207130, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1974", "page_number": 201, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES \n\n195 \n\nto protect the under-growth, such as citrus which cannot withstand typhoons occurring in the summer months. \n\nLiquid extracts of tobacco, derris root, and tea seed cake were sprayed by a simple syringe made of bamboo to control insect pests. The other means of control were light traps to catch June beetles and moths, and paper bagging to protect gourds and fruits from damage by wasps and fruit flies. Hand picking was employed to control insects on crops cultivated in smaller areas. Some farmers even used chicks of less than 10 days old to pick aphids and small larvae on young vegetables grown on the bed of the flood furrow irrigation system. Most varieties of rice showed some resistance to rice-stem-borer which was also controlled to some extent by natural parasites. Not much attention was given to the control of plant diseases. Crop rotation was necessary when insect pests and disease damage became serious. \n\nCattle and buffaloes were kept mainly for draught purpose. When the animals were not busy at the farm, they grazed on wild grasses on the hillsides and returned to the cattle sheds in the evening. Cattle manure and bedding materials, mostly straw were collected and piled up in a yard. Thus, the cattle not only helped the farmer in land preparation, but also collected plant nutrients in the form of grass from the hills to enrich the cultivated fields. \n\nPigs were kept for turning kitchen waste and crop refuses into edible meat. Sows and their litters were allowed to range freely in the village. Weaners were fattened in pens from which sunlight was excluded. They produced porkers with soft spareribs to meet the market preference. Some vegetable growers kept a small herd of pigs by utilizing the vegetable wastes as feed, and collected the manure for the crop. Sows were served by travelling boars. The local breed of pig is characterized by short body, fine bone and big belly which have been selected by using feed of low nutritional value such as sweet potato vine, rice bran, vegetable waste and swill. \n\nA farmer in early days could hardly keep a big flock of chickens with the limited surplus of grain produced from his farm. The chickens ran free to search for grass seeds, worms and other insects in the soil around the village. They were fed with some grains shortly before they returned to their nests in the evening. Thus, the growth rate of the chickens, in general, was very slow.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208139, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1977", "page_number": 178, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "162\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nAmong the plant eating insects in grass-land the most obvious, often the largest insects, are grasshoppers: Patanga sp.—a large brown grasshopper (ca 5 cm or more long), and the smaller short-horned Acrida sp.—are both common in this area. On the plants themselves live leaf-hoppers, spittle bugs, scale insects, the caterpillar larvae of many grass moths and butterflies. The butterfly groups, including \"Skippers\" and \"Small Browns\" are particularly common. In summer cicadas are obvious, but not before May. Debris eaters include many ground-inhabiting insects which are not seen unless searched for. Cockroaches, ants, millipedes, and many beetles fall into this category. The predators that live on insects include the numerous spiders, both hunting and web building, and other families such as mantids (M).\n\ne) Also beside the car park are some big granite rocks with crustose lichens on their surface. Look for:\n\nCaloplaca sp. -- bright orange color.\n\nAspicilia sp. -- pale grey with black spots; probably the most abundant species.\n\nBuellia sp. -- dark grey\n\nand the small foliose lichen:\n\nXanthoparmelia congensis -- yellowish green, somewhat \"leafy\" and less part of the rock than the other species\n\nf) Across Tai Mo Shan Road the hillside has been planted with Acacia confusa (a leguminous plant, therefore able to \"fix\" atmospheric nitrogen). The grey patches on the stems of the acacias are the lichen Lecanora varia. Among the grass in this area is the primitive fern Lycopodium cernuum which is used for making floral decorations, fa pai (RM).\n\ng) If you climb to the top of the first ridge of the site at (f), you can look down onto grassland that was burnt in 1976. This is shown as Plate 1 of the Symposium report (Thrower, 1975); at a guess the fire has \"put back\" the process of succession by about 10 years. Notice the small", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209603, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1982", "page_number": 260, "title": "RAS-1982", "content_text": "238 \n\nCARL T. SMITH \n\nThe Regiment Amateur Dramatic Society put on in 1876 at the Garrison Theatre two short pieces, \"Maud's Peril\" and \"John Brown John's Holiday\". Both were written by an anonymous local resident. \n\nCapt. Bunbury wrote a burlesque entitled \"Butter Cup Bower\" for presentation at an open air fete to raise funds for the Alice Memorial Hospital in 1886. It was repeated several months later as the dramatic portion of “A Musical and Dramatic Entertainment\" to raise funds for an annual treat to the children of non-commissioned officers and men of the Garrison. \n\nGARRISON AMATEUR GROUPS \n\nWe have noted that the first amateur dramatics were encouraged as diversion and entertainment for the military. Through the years various army and navy amateur groups have been organized in Hong Kong. \n\nThey performed under different names. These often included the name of the ship, regiment or unit of the performers. In the 1860s a group called the Garrison Amateur Theatrical Society was active. It was composed of officers. In 1897 there is notice of The Garrison Dramatic Society. The Military Mummers flourished from 1889 to 1892. In the 90s other groups called themselves \"The Sons of Neptune\" and \"The Beetles\". \n\nDuring the 90s it was popular to put on productions called \"Grand Assault at Arms\" accompanied by \"Military Spectacular Exhibitions\". An 1893 production of this type concluded with \"a grand representation of an attack on the Fortress of Ali Musjid\", and at another in 1898 by a naval group from H.M.S. Powerful, the finale was three \"real life Tableaux\": Ready for Action, Battle Scene, and the Death of Nelson. At this particular performance Prince Henry and Princess Irene of the Prussian royal house were present. A patter song was introduced expressing these hopeful sentiments: \n\nOne word before I end my song \n\nTo welcome in far Hongkong \n\nThe grandson of our Gracious Queen† \n\nPrince Henry's mother was Victoria, the Princess Royal, daughter of Queen Victoria, and wife of Frederick III, of Germany.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1982.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211699, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1989", "page_number": 114, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "89\n\nI left the camp at the end of July. Of rice, 7 oz. bread, 7 oz. a meagre portion of beef or pork, some greenstuff, a small quantity of peanut oil, and sometimes a slice of sweet potatoes daily, and about 1 1⁄2 oz. of sugar and a sufficient quantity of salt weekly. Sometimes excessive pork fat was boiled down in the kitchens and distributed as dripping. This diet, it should be noted, includes none of the following: milk, butter, margarine, cocoa, tea, coffee, cheese, fruit, eggs, or jam, and it is entirely inadequate for persons accustomed to a European dietary, as well as far short of the scale believed adopted for internees in the United Kingdom. The Japanese maintained that internees were receiving the equivalent of 2000 calories per head per diem and that this was sufficient for persons not doing hard manual labour. Our own doctors maintained that the minimum allowed by the League of Nations scale was 2400 calories, that we were, during the earlier days, getting only 1400, and that internees were, even at the end of July, getting only 1940. Anyhow, apart from the calories question, the basic rations do not afford suitable nourishment for Europeans, and those persons who were entirely dependent on them were definitely suffering severe hardship. I would add too that the suggestion that internees were not doing hard manual labour was only partly true. All the work of the camp, including road and building repairs and constructions, moving stores, cooking, baking, sawing firewood, grass cutting, etc., was done by the internees themselves, and many of the latter worked hard and for long hours. There is one further class which needs special mention: those people who cannot digest a rice diet. There were many such in the camp, and they were having a hard time. Though a special diet kitchen had been opened to cook for these and other special cases, its resources were very limited, and the diet, though somewhat better cooked, did not vary much from the regular camp food.\n\nThe rice supplied by the Japanese was very variable in quality. Only occasionally did we have first grade. The normal ration consisted of \"cargo rice\", a reddish rice full of grit, beetles, maggots, and other extraneous matter. It cooks badly and has an unpleasant musty flavour. Many representations on the subject were made to the Japanese Authorities, but without effect.\n\nDuring May, the Japanese were so impressed by the physical deterioration of internees that a sum of H.K.$300,000 was allocated for their relief. This came to approximately $105 a head, and it was arranged that a certain sum be allotted for the purchase of extras for the communal", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212231, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1990", "page_number": 173, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "150\n\nSix of them by means of bamboos can carry a very large block of granite to any distance. Their ingenuity is very surprising. There are a few cows, and a few goats to be seen, but there is little verdure except for the goats and mountain sheep. The Chinese dogs are not worth a straw, except to eat, and their flavour is no doubt not so bad. They keep cats in hutches like rabbits; and feed them with rice till they are in good condition for eating. Rats are very abundant; pigs abound, for pork is the chief native food. The birds are not very numerous. Fowls are sold by the pound, at the same price as pork. Geese the same. Wild birds are not allowed to multiply very much. There is the common house sparrow, magpie, the wag-tail, and different species of pigeons. Insects are far too plentiful. Butterflies as large as birds. In fact I have sometimes to look for some time to distinguish whether what I see is a bird or a butterfly. Spiders are very large, and look like young crabs. Cockroaches and beetles are also quite gigantic and very plentiful. They eat up whatever they can get hold of, not being particular whether it is books, shoes, hats, clothes, or food.\n\nThe ants are the worst of all the vermin; black ones are like those in England, perhaps smaller, and not injurious. They take however a great fancy to hair-brushes, so that before you can use one you have to knock out all the inhabitants. They get everywhere, but one does not mind them. The white ants however are greatly dreaded. In one night they will completely destroy a box of clothes, so that in the morning you may find the fragments of the box, that will crumble in your fingers, and find nothing but a few rags and dust for the clothes. They get everywhere. The other day I happened to notice something wrong in a box of Mongolian bibles in the Lumber room. On taking it out, the box fell to pieces, and there were just a few fragments of leaves left, the books being all reduced to black looking dust. I have to be very careful of my boxes, and stand them on bricks to keep them off the ground, which is considered as some protection. The only way to preserve food, etc., is to stand each leg of the meat-safe in a small bowl of water, so that they cannot get at it. The same with things kept in cupboards, etc. These things however do not trouble me in the least, for the servant has all that to attend to. The mosquitoes, that were represented to me as so formidable and annoying, seem quite a hoax. Neither at Batavia nor here, have I so much as seen one. I have no clear idea what they are like; as to being bitten by them, it is out of the question. Mosquitoes to me are quite fabulous. Perhaps however I am one of the favoured ones whom they do not molest. At Batavia I had", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 } ]