DISCUSSION OF FLETCHER'S PAPER 47 



damage to sugar-cane and it is with the pest as it occurs 

 upon that crop that the author chiefly deals. His short 

 description differs somewhat from the account given here. 

 For instance, he notes the occurrence of six instars but 

 makes no mention of a seventh instar in the females. 



From his description, it appears that hatching, devel- 

 opment, and egg-laying occur through about the same 

 periods of the year as they do in Mysore. 



As regards combative measures, his conclusions are 

 decidedly different from those reached in this bulletin. 

 This is, of course, partly due to the fact that he is dealing 

 with the pest chiefly as it occurs on sugar-cane, while this^ 

 bulletin deals with it as attacking paddy and also proba- 

 bly to the fact that conditions in the United Provinces are 

 different from those in Mysore. 



With regard to bagging, he states that it may be 

 done in the early stages, but, in his opinion, it is out of 

 the reach of the small cultivators on account of cost. 

 Almost immediately afterwards, he suggests, as the most 

 efficient method, the use of iron ploughs to plough up the 

 fields and expose the egg-masses after the crop (sugar- 

 cane) has been harvested in March. As a bag, such as 

 that used here, can be made for little over one rupee and 

 as an iron plough, such as could be used effectively in 

 ploughing dry sugar-cane land, would cost, at the very 

 least, Ks. 8 or 9, the force of his argument is lost. 

 Where egg-laying is done in the fields, such a course as 

 ploughing with an iron plough would, no doubt, be bene- 

 ficial, but just how beneficial it would be, would, as already 

 pointed out, depend upon how thoroughly the egg-masses 

 could be broken up. Where, as in the paddy fields of 

 Mysore, the eggs are laid almost exclusively in the bunds, 

 such a course cannot be recommended. These measures, 

 I may say, have already been discussed in the Keport of 

 the Cawnpore Agricultural Station for 1908-09, where it 

 is stated that the cattle of the infested district are not 

 capable of doing such work on dry land. 



The author further suggests the encouragement of 

 insect-eating birds by the erection of resting-places for 

 them among the crops. This hardly appeals to me as a 

 practical measure, nor do I think it would appeal to the 

 raiyats as such. How the raiyat can, on the one hand, 

 manage to frighten off only the grain-eating birds from 



