18 THE AGRICULTURAL PESTS OF INDIA. 



griseus, are the foes of snakes, and are protected in India ; 

 and India has now a close season for some birds and 

 mammals. 



Some plants are known to have protecting qualities. 

 Linnaeus, writing of the primrose, says, ' Sheep and goats 

 eat it, cows are not fond of it, horses and swine refuse it.' 

 Mr. Scott tells us that while other crops suffered, various 

 umbellifers, which are cultivated in India for their 

 aromatic properties, as the Anethum sowa, Coriandruni 

 sativum, Foeniculum panmori, F. vulgaris, Petroselinum 

 sativum, and Ptychotis ajowan, had a complete exemption 

 from insects of all kinds. A crop of white mustard kills 

 or. scares the wire-worm. Dill grown in cabbage beds 

 protects the cabbages from caterpillars. The Sesamum 

 ladicum is afforded protection from insect attacks by the 

 presence of glands, which, as yielding a sweet secre- 

 tion, are sedulously haunted by a common ant. W. 

 Bancroft, writing in 1878, mentioned that he had with 

 advantage sown the Dolichos lablab and Cajanus Indicus 

 pulse among the sugar-cane fields, for the purpose of 

 attracting the ichneumon flies which destroy the cane 

 louse. Frogs avoid localities where valerian is grown, 

 and the hellebore is said to have protective virtues. The 

 Dekhan ryots protect their crops from deer by sowing 

 safflower as an edging of their fields. As to crickets, 

 free irrigation brings them to the surface of the soil 

 and makes the grasshoppers skip out from their leafy 

 harbourings. Thinning, weeding, watering, hand-picking, 

 and dusting \vith quicklime and wood-ashes or soot, 

 are useful means of keeping them under. Pyrethrum 

 carneum, Biebers ; P. roseurn, Biebers ; and P. Willemoti, 

 Duchartre, plants of the Caucasus, merit cultivation in 

 India. The United States Patent Office Eeport for 1862 



