60 REPORT OF THE AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH 



Provincial Work. — The number of assistants employed 

 in Entomological work in the Provincial Agricultural De- 

 partments is now seventeen, of whom six are engaged in 

 teaching in the Agricultural Colleges and eleven in field- 

 work, and of the above numbers two (one in each class) are 

 still under training at Pusa. In view of the enormous 

 areas to be dealt with and the general ignorance of the 

 cultivating classes regarding insect pests and their control, 

 this number appears very inadequate to place the practical 

 side of Economic Entomology in its proper position as a 

 normal part of agricultural practice, but the number of 

 assistants is not being increased in the absence of Provin- 

 cial Entomologists to direct their work. The fact that 

 Economic Entomology forms part of the regular course in 

 Agriculture at six of the Provincial Colleges must count 

 for something in the spread of a knowledge of crop-pests 

 amongst the agricultural classes. As in previous years, the 

 assistance offered from Pusa in co-ordinating and checking 

 the work of these assistants has been utilised by some pro- 

 vinces, who have referred the more technical work to Pusa, 

 leaving the field-assistants free to undertake practical work 

 and demonstrations. 



In Madras, steady progress has been made in investigat- 

 ing the insect-pests of crops and in devising and demon- 

 strating means of control applicable against each, and very 

 good work has been done; this is the more important be- 

 cause the insect-pests of Madras are to a large extent differ- 

 ent from those which occur in the plains of Northern India. 

 In the Central Provinces, the experiments against Termites 

 (white-ants) have been continued at Hoshangabad in col- 

 laboration with the Deputy Director of Agriculture, North- 

 ern Circle, and work against Potato Moth has also been 

 continued. In the United Provinces, good work has been 

 done in demonstration of methods against Cane Grass- 

 hopper and Potato Moth. In Bengal, very good work lias 

 been done in experiments and deuionstration of methods of 

 storing potatoes to keep them from Potato Moth, which is 

 steadily spreading throughout the province. In Eastern 



