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the entomologist has to devise methods which are within the 
very small means of the Indian farmer, and spraying, as a 
general proposition, cannot be considered at all. Such remedies 
are being devised, with the increasing recognition on the part 
of Indian entomologists of the profound difference in Indian 
conditions from those of most Western Countries. Provided 
the remedy satisfies the requirements indicated above, the In- 
dian farmer can, as a rule, be easily persuaded to adopt them. 
Indeed, he himself has not been slow to devise certain ingenious 
remedies. The insecticidal property of mercury was long 
known to him, and it was not before it was proved by me * 
that any entomologist thought of the value of the metal in that 
connection. So, too, in regard to the storage of pulses he has 
hit upon devices which stood the test of scientific investigation. 
The simple method of putting a layer of sand on top of stored 
pulses, which I have suggested as an effective means of safe- 
guarding them from the Bruchids, was derived from a study 
of the local methods of storing them. 
Fumigation, as a method, is inapplicable to conditions in 
India, where each farmer stores his own pulses for the year, 
and where villages are so far apart and have such crude facili- 
ties of transport that distribution of the chemical could not 
be done on any large scale. Nor could the farmer be entrusted 
with so dangerous a chemical. The different method required 
of storing pulses in India is an illustration of the lines the 
entomologist has to proceed in India. The remedies that are 
now being devised take into account this fundamental fact. In 
my own State several remedies have been devised which are 
of a very simple character. The treatment of Nymphula de- 
junctalis, an amphibious caterpillar pest of rice, with kerosen- 
ing the water in the fields, was proved simple and popular. 
Another serious caterpillar pest which devastates many dry 
crops of the state is being controlled by the handpicking of 
the moths, which are conspicuous objects in the bare field, and 
easily caught and killed by the children of the village. More 
examples need not be given to show how very different are the 
lines in which entomological work has to be carried on in 

* It has recently come to our notice that in a ‘‘ Treatise on the Cul- 
ture of the Pineapple,’’ by William Speechly, published in London in 
1821, on pages 321-329, is an account of a method of using quicksilver 
for the destruction of scale insects on pineapple. [Ed.] 
