PEOCEEDIXC.S OF THE THIRD ENTOMOLOGICAL MEETING 31 



Yes ; it is done to a large extent. If the tea has been properly collar- Mr. Andrews 

 pruned once, you can cut out one branch at a time afterwards and get 

 a new bush in a few years without any serious loss of crop. Tea is 

 collar-pruned in the best practice. Sometimes cases occur where tea is 

 not collar-pruned although the manager knows that it should be done. 

 The immediate effect of a first collar-pruning is a loss of crop to a con- 

 siderable extent, and when it is a case of losing crop for the benefit of 

 his successor a manager who has been out some time may often leave 

 tea up which ought to come down. In the case of tea owned b}' big 

 Companies a certain percentage is cut down every year without reference 

 to white ants, etc. In Sylhet collar-pruning was found to give no useful 

 results, so it was not done there, but we did it. 



We are very thankful to Mr. Andrews for his interesting paper. Mr. Eamakrishua 

 He is in a very good position, as he has to deal with only one crop and Ayyar. 

 has got intelligent men to carry out his instructions. In our work, on 

 the other hand, we have to find out in the case of each crop what it will 

 be advantageous to do and often we get information regarding the appear- 

 ance of a pest too late to be able to do anything at all. We realize the 

 truth of all that Mr. Andrews has said, that knowledge both of the insect 

 pests and of the crops is essential. We have to consider local conditions 

 also. As a rule we do not deal with crops of such a high value as tea, 

 coffee and rubber, but with staple crops whidi do not allow of very high 

 profits. Next we have to take into consideration the point of view of 

 the raiyat. Spraying with insecticides can only be applied to paying 

 crops such as fruit-trees, cotton, etc., but with regard to staple crops 

 I feel that spraying cannot be done for some time to come. Our hope 

 lies in the direction of finding out different baits and working on the 

 physiological aspect of insect-ljfe. Then we shall be able to deal with 

 pests of such crops as paddy, sorghum and wheat. 



In Madras we tried spraying against Mango Hopper [Idiocerus spp.]. 

 We succeeded in checking it and the people became interested in this 

 method of control, but we could not get the right sort of sprayers nor 

 could we get the insecticides at the time we wanted them and the prices 

 also went high just at the time when we could have demonstrated with 

 some success. 



Eegarding parasites, to which a previous speaker referred, we know 

 very little about parasites. We want to know their original home. 

 There is some danger in working with parasites especially in the case of 

 their introduction from other countries. We inust first know what 

 parasites we have already got in this country and their hosts. 



We are thankful to Mr. Andrews for his interesting paper. He has Kr. Misra 

 struck out a line of his own and lays great stress on cultural methods. 



