80 REPORT OF THE AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH 



India is, I believe, due very largely or entirely to the abun- 

 dance of peach-fly, 50 per cent, or more of the crop being 

 almost invariably maggotty- It thus appears probable 

 that the application of the poison-spray method may result 

 in opening up, for the profitable cultivation of sound 

 peaches, large areas where such cultivation is at present 

 impossible owing to the ravages of the fly. 



IV. — Medical Work. 



The two genera concerning which information was 

 chiefly desired by the Medical Department were Stegomyia 

 and Phlebotomus. 



A course of instruction in the identification, breeding 

 and general observation of Stegomyia was given in July to 

 Medical Officers engaged in the " Stegomyia survey." The 

 life-histories of all the species occurring at Pusa have 

 been worked out in their main features. Careful obser- 

 vations have been carried on throughout the whole year 

 on the seasonal prevalence of the different species, and it 

 has been established as a practical certainty that all 

 species are normally in the habit of tiding over periods of 

 drought as dry eggs, even though these periods may be of 

 six months or even longer duration. 



Anti- Stegomyia operations have been carried out at 

 Pusa, with a very marked result on the numbers of these 

 mosquitos, which in past years have been invariably very 

 troublesome in the rains. This year it is rare to find them 

 in the bungalows. 



The methods adopted have been the filling up with 

 earth or plaster of Paris of all known or probable breed- 

 ing-places, particularly holes in trees and cut bamboos, 

 and the simultaneous provision of ' trap-breeding-places " 

 in the form of bamboo- joints filled with water which are 

 emptied out as soon as larvae make their appearance in 

 them. I regard this trapping method as a distinct advance 

 on mere indiscriminate destruction, and with modifica- 

 tions it might be found a valuable aid in anti-malarial 

 operations. 



