56 REPORT OF THE AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH 



emerge, but are light and bear no grain. In Begumganj 

 Thana of Noakhali District about half the crop was lost 

 last year; several fields were visited wdiich had not been 

 considered worth harvesting. In 1910 it is estimated that 

 the loss in this Thana was 200,000 maunds of grain. Out- 

 side Noakhali, the disease is said to occur in Comilla, 

 Chandpur and the neighbourhood of Dacca and is probably 

 more widely distributed than this. The same worm was 

 found in specimens collected in these localities and the 

 symptoms were similar. Elsewhere, from several of the 

 rice-growing tracts of India, reports and specimens of 

 diseases exhibiting points of resemblance to ufra have been 

 received, but examination has not, so far, revealed the occur- 

 rence of true ufra outside Eastern Bengal. Further work 

 is required to ascertain if the worm must be held directly 

 responsible for the disease and, if so, how it can be checked. 

 Experiments in this direction are in progress in collabora- 

 tion with the Bengal Department. 



An unsuccessful attempt was made to trace by field in- 

 oculations the life history of the '' false '' smut of rice caused 

 by U stilaginoidea virens. This is being repeated this year. 



{h) Root rot of "plants due to Rhizoctonia. — The soil- 

 dwelling parasite Rhizoctonia has been known in Europe as 

 a fungus pest since the early part of the eighteenth century. 

 It attacks chiefly subterranean tubers such as potato, saffron, 

 carrot and beet; in America it is also found on cotton. The 

 researches of the past two years, carried out by Mr. Shaw 

 and an account of which is now in the press, have shown 

 that, in India, it is a parasite of wide range and, in some 

 cases, extreme virulence. The species known as Rhizoc- 

 tonia Solani Kiihn, first described in 1858 on potato, appears 

 to be most common. It occurs on potatoes at Bankipore, 

 and on the Pusa Farm attacks jute, groundnut and cowpea. 

 At Cawnpore it attacks seedling cotton and it has been 

 reported on sesame from Surat. In some cases, e.g., jute 

 and cotton, the attack takes place in the seedling stage, when 

 it is particularly virulent, in the case of jute the death rate 

 in pot-culture being 70 — 80 per cent. The attack on cotton 



