234 LETTERS TO THE EDITOB. [Jan. 



WANTED, A CURE FOR WIRE-WORMS. 



SIE, — Can any of your readers give their practical experience as 

 to how to effect this ? I have before me the proposals in such 

 books as those of Johnson, Bufibn, Wood, and Ormerod, from wliich I 

 don't gather great hope of extinguishing such troublesome larvte. Too 

 miich spirit of tar or gas-lime for the destruction of those pests is 

 needed consonant with the other uses of the infected ground. To 

 sow white mustard, ground rape, or daisies, or even to set the potato 

 trap, would only be providing food more to their taste. They seem 

 most active in the spring and summer months ; and it appears that 

 autumn and winter are the proper seasons — when the ground is 

 devoid of crops — for applying the remedy. 



Last winter it was proposed to establish a home nursery, and an 

 acre of old lea j)asture was ploughed about one foot deep, on which 

 it was determined to take a crop of potatoes first, as the forest 

 seeds were not yet sown. Accordingly, seeds of a few new and 

 improved varieties were planted in drills 27 inches wide, without 

 dung. But a failui-e resulted ; and it was not difficult to gather 

 a dozen wire-worms off the square yard of the ground. They 

 attacked the roots and many of the tubers as soon as formed. 

 Their presence soon after in the forest seed-beds was manifested 

 by a fragmental portion of them about the size of a man's hand 

 withering away, which spread out till it looked as if it would attack 

 all the young nursery. So soon as I found it was wire-worm, I 

 tried the potato trap. But I found it most satisfactory to scoop 

 out the soil where the plants had perished, and search until you 

 found the culprit. 



I hope some of your abler correspondents will give advice on 

 this subject, for it is evident that something must be done with the 

 soil before risking seedling forest plants. — I am, etc. 



I). B. K B. 



WORKING-MEN'S LECTURES ON FOREST SCIENCE— 

 A PROPOSAL. 



DEAR SIE, — I thank you for inserting and supporting in your 

 last issue my suggestion to working gardeners and others, 

 that, it may be, it lies with them to take the initiative if they 

 desire that the projected School of Forestry in Edinburgh should 

 comprise provision for instruction in Forestry being given on terms 



