150 Indian Museum Notes. fVol V- 



conditions from the soil ; and that the seet, however good as a 

 manure, is always infested with the pest. I should be inclined to 

 think, however, contrary to all principles, that if the seet was spread 

 on the lands, and the spread seet afterwards burned on the fields 

 carefully, that the lands would be benefited, and there would be no 

 chance of the pest appearing on these lands* The year 1897 was 

 a terrible one for caterpillars throughout the whole of Behar, and a 

 large number of concerns made as many as two or three resowings, 

 and in the end the produce of indigo was only a little over half of 

 that of other years. Take a factory in a bad " caterpillar year " 

 like 1897 with, sav > 5< 00 ° tnghas of cultivation (a bigha varies in size, 

 but is usually about an acre), the cost for extra seed alone (the price 

 of seed rising as the crops failed) would come to from Rs. 25,000 to . 

 Rs. 30,000 rough all-round figures, and in the end a bad crop." 



In The Englishman of June 5th, 1901, "Old Planter" wrote 

 about " The Indigo Caterpillar,'' and suggested that a circular be 

 sent to each planter in Behar inviting him to give any information 

 he may have regarding the life-history of the pest. On the follow- 

 ing day was published in the same newspaper a series of nineteen 

 questions that suggested themselves to me as requiring solution ; 

 these questions were embodied by the Secretary of the Behar Indigo 

 Planters' Association and circulated by him to the planters in 

 Behar. 



Mr. J. M. Wilson notes that 1843 was a very bad caterpillar 

 year as he is informed by a friend ; the caterpillars in that year made 

 a clean sweep of the crop in about twenty-four hours and at about the 

 same date all over Behar. Mr. Wilson says that "There are three 

 kinds of caterpillars that do more or less harm to the indigo. The 

 small green one, as far as my experience goes, does not do much 



* In the above remarks there appear to me to be several fallacious statements. 

 Seeted or otherwise richly manured lands would more probably produce a larger 

 "crop " of caterpillars than poor plant grown on poor lands. Again, as far as 

 my experience goes, " The indigo caterpillar " does not show itself at all during 

 khoontie mehai, though many other caterpillars of several species of moths are 

 rampant at that period. But none of them survive the steeping process in the 

 vats, all being killed, nor are anj eggs that may have been laid by moths likely 

 to survive. As for the eggs remaining unhatched in the seet throughout the cold 

 months, this is I think also higly improbable. Nor do 1 think that the grub is 

 always more or less present in the indigo. As far as my observations go, the 

 caterpillar is only found in the first crop in the spring, never when the plants 

 have grown to a considerable size. Burning the seet would certainly destroy any 

 insects and eggs there might be in it (probably there are none of either), but the 

 burning would certainly destroy the chief manurial qualities of the seet, the ashes 

 being but of comparatively little value. 



