•858 MR 



tt.Ani'i ij: 



10 l^d per 10l». No loss than 18,000 were collected in a singU' field. This, 

 at the latter price, wonM cost jCI, 2s fid , which was considered as well 

 expended in saving an aero of turnips worth from £li to £6. As many as 

 W) worms were found at one turnip.* Moles destroy great quantities of 

 the grubs; anti rt>oks, hens, and other fowls will eat thorn eagerly. As 

 many as 122.5 have been taken from the crop of a heu-phcasant, shot in 

 January. t Guano is often fatal to them. Crops manured with it, and with 

 bones dissolved in .«?ulphuric acid have escaped, while other portions of a 

 field have been doomed to destruction.! Soda-ash has recently acquired 

 considerable celebrity in arresting those troublesome vermin, either by de- 

 stroying them, or causing them to descend deeper into the soil. This sub- 

 stance is the soda of the alkali works before its last stage of purification, 

 and consists of carbonate of soda, caustic soda, sulphate of soda, com- 

 mon salt, and carbonate of lime (chalk). It is sown broadca.st at the rate 

 of 1 cwt. to lA owt. per acre, and sells at from lOs to 15s per cwt. The 

 hands in sowing require to be protected with stout' gloves, as it is highly 

 <»austic. It is reckoned a good fertilizer, and its effects continue to subse- 

 quent crops.§ Others deny its infiuence, stating that the worms will live 

 hours in it uninjured ; and that its disagreeable fumesmerely keep away the 

 parent booties, and prevent them from depositing their eggs in the soil.|| The 

 perfect beetle itself, whore the ground is free from stones, may be captured 

 and destroyed, if after rolling, handfuls of hay, turves, or boards, be laid 

 down at intervals, under which the insects may assemble in the evening, 

 which they will sometimes do in great numbers.^ Salt has it favourers, 2 or 

 3 bushels per acre requiring to be sown on the turnips in showery weather 

 — for other crop,", 20 bushels per acre are said to belittle enough.** 



This appears to be the fittest place for noticing the freckled, or spotted, 

 whitish tjrub of a beetle, common in the turnip fields in some parts of Ber- 

 wickshire, that, from its shape and manner of proceeding, might be con- 

 founded with the true wireworm. As it does not appear to be noticed by 

 entomologists, I have appended a descriptiou at the close of this essay. ff 

 It eats holes in the sides of turnips, burrows into the leaf stalk, and some- 

 times insinuates itself between the base of the leaf and the turnip, thus 

 cau-iing it to lose its hold. It likewise mines and perforates the tap root, and 

 cuts it off where it joins the bulb ; and sometimes It excavates a decpish 

 cavity in the top of the turnip, which may render it liable to rot. 



4, CATECUPitMUBfi :QF BUTTERFFJES AND MOTMS. 



The caterpillar of the Common Large White Cabbage Butterfly {Pontia 

 Bmssicce) is often injurious to the Swedish variety of turnip, by .stripping 

 it of its leaves, The plant being thus deprived of its lungs, the growth of 

 the root is nocessarily impeded.^ The caterpillars of the Small White Cab- 

 bage Butterfly [Pontia Rapce), as well as those of the Green-veined White 

 Butterfly (Pontia Napi), are still more hurtful, and prevail to a consider- 

 able extent in this county. Their caterpillars are of a light green, with yel- 

 low stripes lengthways, and are difficult to detect from their hues assimi- 

 lating with (he tints of the foliage. A caterpillar of the P. Rapce, which, 

 after feeding on the white turnip, was converted into a chrysalis, or " nid- 

 nod,'' about Nov. 10, 1848, became a butterfly on the 18th of May, in the 



♦ Sppnce, Trans. Ent. Soc. of Lonion, ii.. part 4, (Journal of Proceedings, Ixxi.,)»ho 

 tlorivud the information h'um u newspaper. 



t Sporting Magazine. Gardcncr.s' Chronicle, Jan., 1844, p. 45. Wcstvood's Intr. 

 to Entomology, i., 238. • 



I Gardeners' Clironicle, Fehruary 5, 1848, p, 90. 

 § GardenerR' Chronicle. May 10, 184G, p. 320. lb., June 19, 1847, i-. 412. lb., April. 

 29, 1848, p. 291. 



II lb., 1846, pp. 688, 635. % lb., June 12, 1847, p. 394. 

 *♦ II)., November, 20, 1847, p. 77('. Dec. 11. 1847, p. 827. lb., July 22, 1848, p. COl. 



ft 8ee note C. 



