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making a variety of pickles. The straw of Kodra is
used by the Kaliparaj to serve as beds. The stems of
jute are used as fuel. Thus, as much economy as possi-
ble is effected in the use of agricultural bye-products. Yet
there is considerable waste.
This waste is due to several factors as shown below :
(i) In the first place, it is due to crop-pests and plant-dis-
eases. Red rot (locally called Ratdo) and leaf smut are
the diseases which frequently overtake sugarcane in this
part. At the same time white ants often attack this crop
and spoil some sugarcane plants by eating them away at
the bottom. The people are not aware of adequate re-
medies to cure and prevent such plant-diseases or attacks
of pests.
(ii) When sugarcane sets are being manufactured into
gul it is a usual practice to invite relatives and friends to
drink juice and eat warm gul. In the case of some
farmers, even potfuls of juice are sent to others. This
may be a good way of creating fellow-feeling but
on the whole it results in much waste.
(iii) Monkeys, jackals and pigs, as already mentioned,
take away their share of the farmers* produce.
Some of this leakage is almost inevitable under the pre-
sent circumstances. Let us take, for instance paddy.
When the seeds are sown, some do not germinate at all.
Of those that germinate, a few seedlings are spoiled in the
process of transplantation. After transplantation, as soon
as plants grow mature and put on sheaves, sparrows corne
in numbers and feed on the grains* Again, some grains
drop down when the paddy plants are being harvested
and some are lost while removing them from the
farm to the farmers' house. Even when they are heaped
in the farmers' compound, they are not safe, since white
ants, found in large numbers in this place, swarm the
ground below the heap and eat away the sheaves at the
bottom. Some grains are again lost in separating them
from straw and winnowing them.
The mind of the people in connection with some of the
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