PROCEEDINGS OF THE THIED ENTOMOLOGICAL MEETING 759 



In Mysore tliis practice was very prevalent at one time but now 

 people seem to have forgotten it. Another method employed is that 

 of using a bin with the capacity of six hundred seers. This bin has a 

 hole which is closed by a coconut shell fitted with a string arrangement 

 to close the hole, the top of the grain is covered by a layer of sand and 

 the grain can be taken out from the lower hole. In some experiments 

 infected seeds were placed in a jar and covered over with a layer of 

 sand. The insects crawled up but could not come down again. Why 

 they cannot go down js very difficult to say. 



In our experiments several different samples of the grains of wheat Mr. Ghosh, 

 were tried. 



In the North-West Frontier Province a cultivator near Tarnab has Mr. Robertson- 

 a grain-store made of deodar with a capacity of about 1,500 maunds. ^^°^"' 

 It is raised from the ground and is simply built of boards and is very 

 airy. I saw it first some seven years ago and the owner tells me that 

 it has been built for thirty years, and that he has never had any trouble 

 with weevils * in it during that time. I have seen the store pretty well 

 filled and also almost empty and without any pests at any time. Other 

 stores which are not airy are always badly affected. My experience 

 is that, if grain is kept in airy stores, it remains safe. It is not a ques- 

 tion of storing small quantities, twenty or thirty tnaunds or so, but of 

 thousands of maunds. In our district the hanias mix dust with the 

 grain and it does not get pests. Further, I have found that when local 

 grain is badly affected, " Pusa 4 " wheat suffers very Httle. I have 

 also found that, while grain stored indoors in bins suffers badly, that 

 stored in airy places does not suffer. One year, owing to shortage of 

 bags, we put some of our grain in old snuff-bags and the grain placed 

 in these bags did not suffer from insect attack. Of course, snuff is a 

 very strong-smelling substance. On further inquiries I was told that 

 if the bags were dipped in folvo the grain would keep safe. This has 

 not been tried as yet. In some parts cyHndrical stores of mud are 

 made and in these the grain keeps well. 



I can corroborate what Mr. Robertson-Brown has told us about Mr. Fletcher. 

 the timber-built granary at Peshawar as I saw it when at Peshawar 

 three or four years ago and found it quite free from insect pests, although 

 the ordinary local pattern of granary, built of thick walls of mud, was 

 swarming with pests, mostly Trogoderma khapra. It struck me that the 

 •difference might be due to the greater variations of temperature in the 



* The term " weevils " here includes Trogoderma khapra, which is the worst pest 

 in the ordinary mud stores in the North-West Frontier Province, as well as Calandra 

 cryzcB. — Editor. 



