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these remedies look so good on paper that they are only too often published, 

 and it is just this class of work that makes planter and cultivator smile 

 and wonder that any one troubles with a science that leads to such absurd 

 and impracticable results. I venture to say that no remedy is likely to be 

 of much use unless it is based on the agricultural practice under which 

 the crup is grown ; very few are good until they have been actually 

 worked out in the field. 



We may rate the agricultural knowledge as being of very high im- 

 portance, and the most satisfactory feature of the present position is that 

 here we have no difficulty and do not have to work up this subject. 



5. MECHANICAL. 



Finally we come to the question of the actual remedies used in fight- 

 ing insects on a large scale. How are insects to be killed on a large 

 scale ? Answers to this question have been developing during the last 

 half century, and there is a large mass of literature dealing with whole- 

 sale poisoning or destruction of pests. These methods will need to be 

 modified for use in India and, save in the one instance of the migratory 

 locust, I know of no trials of even the simplest methods in this country. 

 I believe I am justified in saying that we have here a clear field with 

 no basis of experiment to go on and all our work before us. The question 

 is too large to deal with in detail ; every remedy we think may be good 

 has to be adapted to Indian conditions ; it has to be modified to suit 

 different places, to be rendered available to the untrained cultivator and 

 to the trained farm assistant. We have to learn how best to use the raw 

 materials obtainable in this country, how to distribute insecticides, what 

 machinery is suitable for India. I do not doubt of progress ; though 

 we have no previous experiments to guide us, we are unhampered 

 by any defective methods or erroneous ideas. Years of work are 

 required, but that work is already begun and gives promise of rapid 

 progress. 



This branch is so far removed from Natural History that I do not 

 propose to dwell on it longer ; if naturalists turn their attention to our 

 problems, it will, I hope, be to the scientific rather than to the practical. 

 The latter will be worked out on the Government farms and in the 

 field ; it is work suited to men engaged in experimental agriculture, and 

 our difficulty will lie, not in solving this problem, but in pushing for- 

 ward the much more difficult scientific work. 



