764 



'ROCFEDINGS OF THE THIRD ENTOMOLOGICAL MEETING 



potatoes for seed. In localities where only one crop a year is tlie rule it 

 has to be kept for fully eight months or more, but the potato is capable 

 of being grown and is grown in two seasons in a large number of places. 

 In the latter case the period it hag to be kept is much less, a matter of 

 four months. On account of the abnormal losses in storage due to 

 diseases and pests the price of the potatoes may rise from one rupee 

 a maund in Bengal to even fourteen or twenty rupees a maund at the 

 next sowing. In Bombay, although it has not been seen to rise to such 

 a high figure, three to four times the harvest price is realized during 

 the next sowing. The same conditions probably obtain in the Central 

 Provinces and the Punjab. From observations taken of the cultivators' 

 heaps it is found that the loss due to diseases and pests may range from 

 50 to 75 per cent. 



The way in which the potatoes are stored by the cultivators is briefly 

 this : — A rectangular pit about a foot deep is dug, generally under the 

 shade of a tree. This pit is watered and the soil is pressed down before 

 the potatoes are poured in. These heaps may vary from 3 to 3i feet 

 in depth. The potatoes are then covered by a layer of Nhn leaves 

 or straw. Over the whole heap a roof is constructed of straw and leaves 

 to prevent the heaps being directly exposed to the Sun and thereby turn 

 green. No attempt is made to remove the rotten potatoes except when 

 the heap is to be sold off finally at the end of storage. When the potatoes 

 are uncovered at the end of storage practically every potato has the 

 larvae of the moth boring inside and the potatoes lower down the heap 

 have rotted to a larger extent than in the upper layers of the heap. 



The cultivator ascribes all this damage to the easily visible moth 

 and its larvae and he has no means of discriminating the subtle and 



* For all the figures included in this pajjcr I am indebted to S. D. Nagpurker, B.A 



