THE TLOKAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



179 



the trees, or slie would carry away all the 

 prizes at a local show. 



She tells me, also, that she used to lose 

 all her carrots witli wire-worm till she 

 tried the " socker" out of the farm-yard 

 once a week on them, that is, the wet drain- 

 ing from the manure of, perhaps, a dozen 

 cows and as many horses, brought in every 

 evening. But she says she "has to pour 

 it out of an old long-spouted oil-flask, be- 

 cause it would bui-n the leaves off, and she 

 only wants to sicken the worms at the 

 root." They get away from the tincture, 

 "and then," quoth she, " the mouldiwarps 

 may eat them for supper for all I care." 

 (^Moiildwarp, German maiihvurf, Ajiglice 

 mole.) If the rabbit-dung, which I am 

 trying for want of a croftful of beautiful 

 ewes, should continue to answer, as it has 

 done hitherto, it may be worth your while 

 to insert a note to that effect for your 

 rcadei's in the spring. Meantime, this for 

 your information. 



With thanks for the gi'eat help your 



Magazine has been to ua in our newly- 

 taken garden, which last year was a wil- 

 derness of neglected roses and box-edgings, 

 couch-grass and turnip-seedlings, and is 

 now full of excellent crops of vegetables 

 and flowers. If, in return, you could tell 

 me why every cottager can make the 

 ilesembryanthemmn tribe flower freely in 

 their windows, and mine won't do any- 

 thing but make big fat leaves and sprawling 

 stems, I shall be thankful. 



Brook IIotjse. 

 [Doubtless the cottagers in these busy 

 times neglect their window plants, so that 

 they get pot-bound and starved into bloom; 

 whereas you, to keep them growing, give 

 them more pot room than they ought to 

 have, and so have growth at the expense 

 of bloom. Look into the frames and pits 

 of nurseries just now, and see how every 

 mite of a plant has its boss of bloom, 

 through being pinched and starved in the 

 small pots in which thev are kept 

 for sale.— Ed. F. W.] 



NATURAL HISTORY OP THE WIRE-AVORM. 



A SKETCH of the economy of these insects 

 is deserving the attention of every culti- 

 vator of the soil, since they visit both fields 

 and gardens, sparing neither corn, turnips, 

 mangold-wurzel, potatoes, nor paatuvc- 

 land ; and revelling alike upon cabbages 

 and carnations, lettuces and pansies. The 

 snake-millipedes are often mistaken by 

 agriculturists for the wire-worm, but they 

 are not even insects. The true wire-worms 

 are tlie offspring of a tribe of beetles, 

 which are called in England skip-jacks, or 

 spring-beetles, from the power tliey pos- 

 sess of leaping up to recover tlien- feet, 

 when placed upon their backs ; and from 

 the distinct snap which one hears on such 

 occasions, they are also termed snap or 

 click-beetles, and also blacksmiths, but the 

 scientiCc name of the genus is JElaier. 



Of the various species that inhabit 

 this country, there are probably only 

 three or four whose lavvce do much mis- 

 chief; they are the Ulaier spectator, IS. 

 ohscurus, E. Uneatus, and E. ruficaudis. 

 Their economy is similar ; and as the 

 JElater Uneatus has been most frequently 

 reared, I shall proceed to give its history. 

 The beetles are found in fields and gar- 

 dens, woods and hedges, from April to 

 July ; the females ai'e supposed to lay 

 their oval whitish eggs in the earth, close 

 to the plant which is selected to supply 



nourishment to the future progeny ; and 

 no sooner are the larva3 hatched, than 

 they commence eating into the stem or 

 root, not unfrequently ascending the centre 

 of the stalk, even above the sui'face of the 

 earth. They are at first very minute, but 

 often become three-quarters of an inch 

 long when full grown ; and it is asserted 

 that they are five years in undergoing 

 tlfeir transformations, which is exceedingly 

 probable, for I have kept them ten or 

 twelve months without discovering any 

 material change in their stature. As soon 

 as they have done feeding, having cast off 

 three skins as they increased in size, they 

 form an oval cell at a considerable depth 

 in the earth, where they change about 

 July or August to pupa^, which ex- 

 hibit the members of the future insect so 

 perfectly, that the genus may be identi- 

 fied. After remaining in this state, some- 

 times for a few weeks only, at others for 

 many months, the beetles issue forth re- 

 joicing in the spring. 



The wire-worm has been so designated 

 from its extreme toughness. That of 

 Elater Uneatus is very smooth and shining, 

 of an ochreous colour, with a few hau-s 

 scattered over its body ; it is semi-cylin- 

 drical ; the head is flattened or wedge- 

 shaped, with two little horns, and a minute 

 eye-like dot on each side ; the mouth is 



