AND COLLEGE, PUSA, FOR 1915-16 45 



III. Diseases of Plants. 



The investigation of the diseases of plants, the collection 

 and identification of Indian parasitic fungi, and advice 

 and assistance to officers of the Department and the general 

 public, formed as usual the chief work of the section. 



(1) Paddy diseases. The most important disease at 

 present under investigation in the section is that known as 

 " ufra ' of rice, which continues to extend and attract 

 increasing notice in Eastern Bengal. It is now throughout 

 most of the districts of Noakhali, Tippera and Dacca and 

 is extending into Mymensingh and probably Sylhet. With 

 a view to testing measures for checking its ravages by 

 experiments within the affected area, I selected a site near 

 Comilla in 1912, and arranged for its acquisition as a tem- 

 porary measure and also for complete control of its water 

 supply by bunding, to prevent risk of infection from neigh- 

 bouring fields. Subsequently it was decided by the local 

 Department not to acquire the land, arrangements being 

 made with the cultivators in the selected area to carry out 

 our instructions. This did not prove satisfactory; the 

 instructions were not followed, the bunds were defective 

 and were cut through when water became scanty and the 

 crop was harvested before it could be inspected. Owing to 

 the evident difficulty of securing effective control of the 

 selected site, it was abandoned last year and arrangements 

 have been made to carry on the work in the neighbourhood 

 ol Dacca. Meanwhile small plots were instituted at Pusa 

 in 1912, in order to duplicate the work under more rigorous 

 control. It has been necessary to confine the Pusa work 

 within narrow limits to avoid risk of the disease escaping 

 from the plots to the surrounding cultivation ; and only one 

 or two experiments have been possible each season, outside 

 those which could be carried on in the laboratory. The 

 information obtained has, however, been considerable. It 

 has been proved that a diseased plot will inevitably give a 

 diseased crop the following year, if the stubble is allowed 

 to rot on the ground as is the usual practice in the infected 



d2 



