NO. 5 (1922) MOSQUITO LARVICIDES 127 



organizations, engaged in loan operations. A notable variation is 

 a wholesale co-operative oil and guano society at Mangalore, 

 composed of factory owners who are combining to bulk their 

 produce and sell it jointly. 



Temperance and village betterment. — A propaganda in favour of 

 temperance is another of the department's activities and this is 

 meeting with a decided and gratifying measure of success in 

 several important localities. This is the case particularly in South 

 Kanara. Such work goes hand in hand with efforts to provide 

 village meeting halls to be used for reading and other recreation. 

 In several instances the fisherfolk have been so impressed with the 

 advantage of possessing such halls, that they have subscribed 

 substantial sums to construct the buildings; the Government 

 provide the sites free of cost. Every opportunity is taken to show 

 the fisherfolk the advantage of simple methods of sanitation and 

 much is being accomplished in a quiet way. 



VI.— ANTI-MALARIAL OPERATIONS. 



These form a considerable and very valuable part of our work 

 and consist of three separate phases, viz. — 



(a) The breeding and distribution of mosquito-larvicidal 

 fishes to municipalities and other bodes. 



(b) The periodical stocking of pools in specially malarious 

 localities with such larvicides. 



(c) The conversion of mosquito-infested sheets of water into 

 fish-breeding ponds which also serve the purpose of fry distri- 

 bution centres for the stocking of irrigation tanks. 



(a) The department is able to supply large numbers of 

 larvicides at the nominal cost of Rs. 10 per thousand, but in spite 

 of the earnest recommendation of Government, municipalities and 

 other local authorities do not as yet avail themselves at all 

 adequately of the facilities offered them to obtain a good strain 

 of these useful little fishes. They appear either careless of the 

 value of this cheap means of combating malaria, or else depend 

 upon local supplies of what are too often species of inferior 

 larvicidal quality. 



The second form of operation is more directly in our power to 

 organize, and an excellent beginning was made last year, when 

 from our larvicidal fish farm at Praema in Kurnool district, 70,000 

 larvicidal fish were distributed to the streams and pools in the 



