22 



all round. It takes as niuoh as a day to make one so that 

 raiyats are tempted to abandon the method even though they 

 have a great deal of faith in it. The seeds may be mixed with 

 sand, ashes, ragi husk, etc., before storage. In baskets they 

 are not so mixed, but the top layer may be smeared over 

 with castor oil. A practice which evidently prevailed among 

 the people but is no longer so, is the use of a small quantity 

 of mercury — little more than a few drops — which is placed in- 



FiG 14. — Bamboo bin with narrow mouth shewing arrangement for withdrawing 

 seed from below. 



side the excavated shell of a soapnut in the store. With the 

 exception of storage in " moodais," all these methods have 

 been tried in the Insectary. The admixture of sand, ashes, 

 ragi husk, etc., was found entirely useless. The layer of 

 seeds smeared over with castor oil was found, on the other 

 hand, quite effective though emergence was by no means 

 absolutely prevented. Similar results were obtained with 

 mercury which were quite unexpected. In small jars 

 of a capacity of a few seers, the presence of the metal 



