52 THE AGRICULTURAL PESTS OF INDIA. 



felled trees contain much less both of the acid and the 

 potassium. Mne-tenths of the decay of timber is due to 

 rot occasioned by the common wood fungus. This para- 

 site develops under two conditions, namely, moisture and 

 heat, and both are present in new, green, or unseasoned 

 timber employed in buildings. In old or seasoned 

 timber, the former is wanting, and hence greater durability, 

 If moisture only be present without heat, the fungus will 

 not grow ; if heat without moisture, it equally has no 

 scope for development, and hence the protecting influence 

 of ventilation. See Fungi. 



Durkhi, an insect of Hindustan, very destructive to 

 the rice plant ; it awaits identification. An insect of 

 similar name is very destructive to the young indigo 

 plant. 



E 



Elateridse, or click - beetles, in their larva stage, are 

 known in Britain as wire-worm. Many of the species 

 attack all sorts of cultivated vegetable produce. In 

 Bengal they are destructive of wheat, barley, and millets, 

 injuring the plant, root and stalk. The Iarva3 of one 

 species penetrate the potato tubers and destroy their 

 inner parts. Wheat and barley crops, when freely mixed 

 with mustard plants, suffer less than other crops. Some 

 of the species live for two or three years in the larva 

 state, and do in this time great damage to crops of corn. 

 Larvae of a click-beetle have been found at the roots 

 of the Queensland sugar-cane, but no damage from them 

 has been detected. J. Scott. 



Eleusine coracana, Gcertner, suffers greatly from heavy 

 rain, and a good year for rice is a bad year for eleusine r 



