n 



PllEVENTIVE AND REMEDIAL MEASURES. 



The remedies described below are those so far tested against crop 

 pests in India ; they have been laboriously worked out after many failures 

 and in the face of many difficulties ; they are in the nature of sug'gestions, 

 not of recommendations ; such suggestions as are of value when one is 

 face to face with a pest and seeking for some method that will fit in with 

 the agricultural conditions and with the ways of the insect. It is not to 

 be supposed that any one can read these pages and find a remedy for 

 every and any pest. At best they are suggestions, which are the pick of 

 the methods used abroad and which should be familiar to those who 

 experiment with crops ; when the pest comes, some method may be 

 modified with practice, which will perhaps meet the case and give good 

 results. No remedy is of the slightest use unless done thoroughly and 

 with the full determination to destroy every single insect ; if one could 

 but educate the ryot up to that feeling, there woiJd not be a pest left 

 in densely populated India. 



The simplest method is to pick the insects off the plants one by one 

 and Idll them. This is tedious, but satisfactory and effective. As stated 

 above, the common hen is perhaps the best agent for the purpose, but it 

 is a remedy far more suited to the ways of India where holdings are 

 small, time is plentiful and patience unending than to other countries. 

 Having secured the insects, there is no difficulty in killing them ; a pot 



of hot water, a 

 little kerosene 



floating on a pan 

 of water, two flat 

 stones or a fire are 

 all equally effec- 

 tive. The practice 

 of carefully pick- 

 ing off caterpillars 

 and liberating 

 them at a distance 

 of say one hundred 

 yards from the 

 infested plot is 

 not only ineffective 

 and futile but need- 

 lessly cruel. 



An improvement on hand-picking is a bag, a basket or a net. The bag 

 is a most valuable instrument, which can be made to suit all circum- 

 stances ; with a width of 12 feet and an opening 3 feet high, it sweeps 



Fig. 90. 



The most useful bag, loith crost bamboos joined, to the upright 



side bamboos, allowing the mouth to be instantly closed. 



