1038 PROCEEDINGS OF THE THIRD ENTOMOLOGICAL MEETING 



be admitted tliat tlie Agricultural Department has not yet been success- 

 ful in reaching the public in most cases and as members of a Service 

 intended to help the agricultural public, it is our duty to find out why 

 and in what respects we fail to reach them. Many of the officers of 

 this Department have peculiar notions about bringing the results of 

 agricultural research to the notice of the public. One recorded it as 

 his opinion that those who did not know English could not be said to 

 be educated and the matters in which this Department dealt were so 

 abstruse that they would not be intelligible to the so-called " unedu- 

 cated " people even if presented to them in their own vernaculars. 

 This reveals a want of knowledge of the actual conditions. Without 

 going too far it will be sufficient if we inquire how ma y of the coolies 

 we engage in the Pusa Farm know how to read and write their own 

 vernacular. From my experience of Bengal and Bihar it can be said 

 that it is a common practice with all cultivators to read or hear read 

 the epics of Ramayana and MakabJiara'a, both written in not vi ry 

 simple verses. Therefore the fault is with us if we cannot present our 

 subjects in a simple, clear and intelligible manner, and not with the 

 cultivators whom we wish to inform. They know their agricultural 

 problems thoroughly, although they may not be able to express them 

 in the maimer in which we can. All important matters relating to 

 agriculture can hardly fail to interest them. The public can be reached 

 through various available agencies. 



Although newspapers and magazines are not yet as widely read in 

 India as in some of the Western countries, from my experience of Bengal 

 I can say that the vernacular weekly papers are most widely circulated 

 and they find their way to remote villages. Any information intended 

 to be spread quickly cannot be better done than through the medium 

 of these weekly papers. Four weekly papers of Calcutta can be ijamed 

 which together can ca'iy the information throughout the whole of 

 Bengal. It depends on us to supply them with the information. Other- 

 wise wrong information or correct information awfully distorted is 

 likely to be spread. As an instance the following incident may be 

 mentioned. A vernacular monthly magazine on one occasion published 

 the information that damage to stored rice could be prevented by the 

 application of carbon bisulphide and gave the direction that carbon 

 bisulphide was to be tied in a piece of cloth and kept in the midst of 

 the stored rice. This information was quoted in many papers, and 

 necessarily widely circulated, with what result you can imagine. It 

 seems therefore highly necessary that instead of remaining co tented 

 with giving useful information on Economic Entomology in books 

 which seldom find their way to the remote villages, we should frequently 



