Progress of Economic Entomology in India, 
by H. MAxWELL-LEFROY M. A., F. E. S., 
AMAS ETOMLE RD DAS 
Imperial Entomologists, India. 
We propose in this papers to give an account of the measures 
that are being taken to check crop pests in India and of the efforts 
that are being made to bring to the attention of the Agricultural 
Community in India the necessity for and value of preventive and 
remedial treatment for injurious Insects. In order to be clear we 
must first deal with the circumstances of the case, since both 
Indian agriculture and the conditions of the Indian agriculturist 
are very different from those of European countries. 
Agriculture in India is, to an extraordinary extent, the staple 
industry of the country. The proportion of persons engaged in it 
is 62 °/., the cultivated area is 382,975 square miles and, compared 
with it, manufacturing arts and industries are very small. The great 
proportion of the people live in villages, are an agricultural people 
pure and simple, and lead extremely simple lives. 
For our purposes, there are three classes of people concerned, 
the small holder, tenant or cultivator, the zemindar or large land- 
owner, and the European planter. The last is so small an item as 
to be negligible; there is an English community producing tea 
in Assam, North Bengal, etc., another producing tea, coffee, 
rubber, etc., in South India, another producing indigo and staple 
crops in Behar. The last community is, in essence, a landowner 
community similar to the zemindars, not so much directly engaged 
in cultivation as having rights over land, administering it and 
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