36 THE RICE WORM (TYI.ENCHUS ANGUSTUs) AND ITS CO>fTROL 



In certain parts of the Madhupur Jungle the people are already adopting 

 the plan of cutting down and levelling the bottoms of the bils so as to transform 

 them into boro fields, while the earth removed is used to raise the level of the 

 margins high enough to grow khania paddy, which also escapes the disease. 

 The extent to which this can be done by the unaided efforts of the cultivators 

 is, however, limited, and the assistance of Government or of local authorities 

 is required if it is to be carried out on a larger scale. It is probably one of the 

 most useful ways in which local funds could be expended, as not only will 

 communications be thereby improved but the produce of the land will be 

 increased, apart altogether from ufra, because the varieties of paddy that can 

 be grown on land thus treated are heavier yielders than the deep-water amans 

 now found. 



In the control of ufra it is evident that the methods must be largely 

 directed to altering the conditions under which the rice crop is grown and so 

 indirectly interfering with the activities of the parasite. The problem is 

 more an agricultural than a pathological one. The pathologist can only aim 

 at obtaining such a knowledge of the life-habits of the worm as to render it 

 possible for the cultivator to arrange his practices so as to interfere as much 

 as possible with its free development. There are not many places in India 

 where the existing practices in rice-growing are so favourable to the peculiarly 

 limited activities of Tylenchus angustus as those of the eastern districts of 

 Bengal. 



It is hoped that the results described above are sufficient to establish 

 that much may be done to reduce the ravages of this pest. It has been con- 

 clusively proved that the destruction of the stubble of the winter rice will 

 alone effect a great improvement. Where destruction is complete, or can be 

 supplemented by a sufficient period of good cultivation of the soil before 

 sowing the new crop, no worms will survive in those areas (and they are very 

 large) in which the fields are dry enough to be taken in hand before the end of 

 December. Where the fields remain moist into January and February it will 

 still often be possible greatly to reduce the disease by burning at the right 

 time and not attempting it before the stubble is dry enough to take fire. In 

 the very muddy patches the growth of boro may be encouraged, and in many 

 places a crop of transplanted aman taken after jute or (in some localitier.) 

 after aus can with advantage replace the broadcasted aman. No one method 

 will secure equally good results in all places, but each has its particular 

 application and between them they cover a very high proportion of the fields 

 subject to damage. But no one who has bad any experience of the conditions 

 of rice cultivation in Eastern Bengal, the enormous area concerned, the 



