30 THE RICE GRASSHOPPER 



and where not to expect to find egg-masses. Grassy 

 bunds, especially the narrower ones, and boundary demar- 

 cation mounds are favorite spots for egg-laying, while the 

 fields themselves remain practically free. Any search 

 made for egg-masses must, therefore, be directed to the 

 bunds and they can usually be found in considerable 

 numbers there. The work ot digging for them in heavy 

 sod is, however, difficult and in order to be really effective 

 would have to be carried out thoroughly over all the 

 infested bunds, something which it would be very difticult 

 to persuade the raiyats to do. 



Another possible means of preventing the eggs hatch- 

 ing suggested itself. It seemed quite possible that by 

 means of comparatively deep ploughing with improved 

 ploughs which would invert the soil containing the egg- 

 masses that these masses could be buried so deep as to 

 prevent, to a large extent, the escape of the young hoppers 

 to the surface of the soil at the time of hatching. On 

 the other hand, a shallow ploughing might result in the 

 exposure of a considerable number of egg-masses. 



The fact that the eggs are, for the most part, laid in 

 bunds, which are frequently quite narrow, makes the work 

 of ploughing difficult. A first attempt was made in 

 December 1909, but it had to be abandoned. There was 

 still a fair amount of moisture in the soil, but the local 

 bullocks proved too weak to draw the somewhat heavy 

 steel plough used. Two pairs of bullocks were tried on the 

 plough, but they still were unable to pull it through the sod. 



In June, 1910, the experiment was again tried, this 

 time with a lighter plough capable of going from four to six 

 inches deep and with a larger pair of bullocks from the 

 Experimental Farm. The work proved very difficult and 

 the plough did not average more than three inches in depth. 

 The inversion of the sod was also iuq3erfect and had to be 

 completed by hand. The work was extremely slow, it 

 requiring about twenty hours' labour to plough the bunds 

 surrounding and separating the plots in three acres of 

 paddy land. It must be noted, however, that some of 

 these bunds were quite wide, being six feet or over. 



It is clear that this depth of ploughing could not bring 

 about the burial of the egg-masses. In fact, as the egg- 

 masses are laid up to two inches in depth it should rather 

 have tended to expose them. It was found, however, that 



