[ 342 J 



will have been solved. All that a cultivator will then need 

 to do is to make use of the stray plants that appear in his 

 potato fields in June or July, and all the stems which are still 

 green but mature, at the time of the potato harvest (which at 

 this stage are rich in the reserve of food material) and to grow 

 a crop of stems only on high beds during the rainy season 

 which may be utilized in September or October as cuttings 

 or seed, thus doing away with the necessity of buying seed 

 potatoes altogether. The potato plants grown in the rainy 

 season will be found particularly subject to the attack of 

 insect pests, but these can be successfully fought against by 

 the application of insecticidal dusts with the help of a pair 

 of bellows employed for this purpose. As the Sibpore ex- 

 periment has not been completed yet we can only speak with 

 some amount of reserve on the success of the experiment 

 here described and the probabilities are we will not be able 

 to stem the tide of degeneracy even if the stems used as 

 cuttings in September or October produce a crop of tubers 

 of some sort. 



509. The expense per acre may be calculated thus : 



Rs. A. p. 

 Two ploughings and 2 cross-ploughings with 



Sibpur plough ... ... ... 300 



Two grubbings ... ... ... i 8 o 



Picking Dhaincha stalks or 2 harro wings ... i 8 o 



Fifteen maunds of lime ... ... 12 o o 



Spreading Do ... ... ... i 8 o 



Laddering or Bakharing ... ... o 12 o 



Ridging with double-mould-board plough ... 012 o 



Seed 10 maunds ... ... ... 50 o o 



Pickling seed ... ... ... 380 



Planting ... ... ...600 



Castor-cake (30 maunds) ... ... 60 o o 



Spreading ... ... 280 



Two earthings , ,,. ,,. 600 



