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The Country Gentleman s Magazine 



You must all of you know the great white 

 maggot, which is the grub of the cockchafer. 

 It takes three years to come to the perfect 

 state, and all that time feeds at the roots. 

 The click-beetles, or skip-jacks, so called 

 from their jumping when turned on their 

 backs, harmless as they are in the perfect 

 state, are the parents of dreaded wire-worm 

 — that is, their eggs, when hatched, are wire- 

 worms. The only practical way of getting 

 rid of wire-v/orms is by growing a crop which 

 will not furnish them ^^th food. It is said 

 a wire-worm-haunted field may be cured for a 

 time by planting it with potatoes, which the 

 ^\^re-worm cannot eat. Some fanners, I 

 have heard, use soda-ash, sowing it with 

 seed, or broadcast. The rooks and 

 starlings are the best helps in getting 

 rid of the wire-worm and the cockchafer 

 grub. Were it not for these, we should be 

 far more troubled by these grubs, and even 

 perhaps overran by them. The turnip-fly, as 

 it is called, Is- one of the most annoying and 

 destructive insects we have. It is a small 

 beetle, which lays its eggs on the young 

 leaves of the turnip. The eggs hatch almost 

 directly, and the grub destroys the leaves. 

 No practical remedy is, I believe, known. In 

 a garden, it may be of use to scatter some 

 good hme on the surface as the seeds. are 

 coming up. The last beetle I shall mention 

 is the ladybird, or, as it is called in the hop 

 districts, the fly-gilder. It lays its eggs in 

 the midst of the green flies, or plant-lice, and 

 the grub when hatched feeds solely upon 

 them — in fact, the ladybird is our best help 

 in checking the increase of these destructive 

 insects. Hop-growers well know their value , 

 and I doubt not they are just as useful to 

 farmers in general, keeping down the green 

 fly which attacks their peas and beans. 

 When ladybirds are plentiful in the spring, 

 the hops, I believe, seldom suff"er much 

 from green fly. Destructive as they are in 

 other countries, the locusts and grasshoppers 

 do very little harm in England. The emigra- 

 tory locust does now and then get blown 

 across the Channel, but our climate is far too 

 cold for them to multiply here. We often 

 see notices in the papers that locusts have 



been taken in difterent parts of England ; 

 but in most cases this is a mistake, all kinds 

 of different creatures being mistaken for 

 locusts. Everpbody knows the green fly or 

 aphis. These plant-lice are wonderfully pro- 

 lific, and increase most rapidly. Hence have 

 arisen many mistakes. People have imagined 

 that they could not come in the ordinary 

 course of nature. Some have supposed they 

 are brought by the east wind ; others that 

 they have come by spontaneous generation.. 

 And hence they have thought that it was no 

 use to try and stop their ravages. This, 

 however, may often be done when care is 

 taken in the house and in gardens. If the 

 first green fly be picked off", we can often keep 

 them down ; but in the fields we must leave 

 them to the ladybirds and other like enemies. 

 The black jack, or nigger, so destructive to 

 the turnips, are the caterpillars of a small trans- 

 parent winged fly called the turnip saw-fly. 

 This insect lays its eggs on the turnip leaf, cut- 

 ting little grooves to receive them. They grow 

 very quickly, and are very voracious, as you 

 all know. No remedy is of any use on a 

 large scale. Rolling will spoil the turnips as 

 effectually as the grub. Trenches have been 

 dug between the infected and free portions of 

 the field ; lime and soot have been tried, but 

 all of little use. In a garden, hand-picking 

 is the best plan. The last insect which I 

 propose to mention is the midge. We have^ 

 I think, of late years heard but little about 

 the destruction caused by this insect, but 

 twenty years ago it was regarded with great 

 apprehension. I find Irom Mr Goodwyn 

 that you suffered from it three years ago. 

 You probably, all of you, know the damage 

 which is caused by it. In harvest, the 

 crop is found very defective, the ears- 

 being full of shrivelled grains. If the ears are 

 examined before the harvest, little orange- 

 coloured maggots, about the size of a small 

 pin's head, will be found — these are the 

 larvae of the wheat midge. The mother in- 

 sect, which is very small, lays her eggs within 

 the chaff" scales in June. These are soon 

 hatched and destroy the grain, at least it does 

 not swell. At harvest tune these are carried 

 into the barn, and when they are numerous, 



