ON THE WIRE WORM. 10? 



I could not inform him. I therefore requested, that he 

 would accompany me to the field where the greatest injury 

 was done, in order that we might examine into it. This 

 we accordingly did ; and we were successful in discovering 

 three of the insects in question, of which two were in the 

 act of destroying the wheat, as above mentioned. With Its manner of 

 their projecting jaws these insects cut round the outside ^^ ing 

 grass about an inch below the surface of the soil, to get at 

 the young white shoot in the centre, which they eat: upon 

 this, vegetation is immediately (lopped, and the plant dies. 

 I suspect, that they first eat the flour in the grains which 

 has not been drawn up by vegetation ; for, when we touched 

 them, they ran into the husks ; and two of the three insects 

 I carried home in the husks, which appear to be their habi- 

 tations, and probably the place where they change from the 

 iarva to their present ftate. 



The injury which the public sustains by the ravages of Great injury 

 these insects may, in some measure, be "calculated from one y *" 

 Mr. Olley's loss in 1802 : he sowed fifty acres of a clay soil 

 with wheat; out of these ten were destroyed by them, 

 which were replanted by dibbling in one bushel of seed per 

 acre.. The price of wheat at that time was eight shillings 

 per bushel. 



We here observe one fifth part of the quantity sown de- Calculation of 

 stroyed by thefe noxious insects, but the depredations of ^^J, 1 ^ 

 the wireworm, as I am informed by a friend* whose expe- from it, 

 rience* and observation enable him to calculate with superior 

 judgment, being principally confined to wheat sown upon 

 clover leys, old pastures recently broken up, pea and bean 

 stubbles, &c, we may suppose the general average of the 

 injury to amount to much less than a fifth (Mr. Olley's 

 loss) : a twentieth part of what is sown upon this description 

 of lands will, I think, be deemed a very fair and moderate 

 calculation. The number of cultivated acres of land in 

 England at the time above mentioned was computed at 

 seven millions, of which 2,400,000 were calculated to be 

 sown with wheat ; and as only one half of the wheat an- 

 nually sown is supposed to be upon clover leys, old pas- 



* Allen Taylor^ Esq. Wimbish-hall, Essex. 



tores 



