No. 3.] Indigo. 153 



If cold weather rains fall and the lands are ploughed and turned 

 over, caterpillars are not bad. [Filgate) Caterpillars are always 

 worse after a cold weather rain. I cannot give any reason for this 

 except that late ploughing releases the chrysalises from the 

 grounds. — (Sealy) 



10. Why should seeted lands be more badly damaged by cater- 

 pillars than lands not so manured ? — I cannot say, but caterpillars 

 often appear in seeted lands, when they do not appear elsewhere. — 

 (Wilson.) Do not know the reason why, but seeted lands are 

 certainly more particularly affected by caterpillars.— (M array.) 

 Although a fact, I cannot say why it should be so {Filgate). I take 

 it that the leaves of seeted plant are more tender than those of other 

 plants. — [Sealy.) 



11. Are the eggs of the moth present in the seet when it is spread 

 over the fields? Not in my opinion.— [Sealy.) 



12. A Tirhut planter suggests burning the seet and so killing 

 any moth eggs there may be in it. But would not this procedure 

 destroy most of the manurial value of the seet ? — Burning seet on the 

 land only fertilizes the soil for the one year. [Wilson.) Would 

 partially destroy manurial value. — (Murray.) 



13. What is the best sprayer or strawsonizer to use to destroy 

 the caterpillars ? — The best I have heard of is Strawson's.— [Murray.) 



14. What is the best chemical to use in the sprayer or straw- 

 sonizer ? — Parafine is cheap, and, I believe, effectual. — (Murray) 



15. Why is an east wind favourable, and a west wind unfavour- 

 able to the caterpillars? — An east wind is a damp warm wind, while 

 the west wind is the opposite. An east wind brings what the natives 

 call u Jhulka," a kind of cobweb in wjiich small green caterpillars are 

 generated; while the west wind brings " Jharka," a kind of blight 

 that does away with the Jhulka.— ( Wilson.) East winds are favour- 

 able to caterpillars, but I do not know why.— (Murray.) Damp suits 

 the caterpillars. — [Filgate.) A west wind dries up the young cater- 

 pillars when they have just been hatched out. — (Sealy.) 



16. Give the years when caterpillars were really bad. Do bad 

 caterpillar years occur in regular cycles?- In my experience since 

 1847 one of the worst years was 1852 or 1853, and again in 1865. 

 These were really bad years, but in the end we managed to secure 

 fair crops. There have been other years when caterpillars have done 

 harm, but not the damage they did in those above-mentioned. I 

 think the pest depends a great deal on the weather, as noted in my 

 reply to question 9.— (Wilson.) 1864 or 1865, 1888, 1889, 1893 and 

 1900.— -(Murray) During the last ten years, there has been only one 



