110 THE FLOKIST AND POMOLOGIST, [May, 



ested in this subject. I tlirow out tlie above liints in the hope that some one 

 more able than myself will take up the question, as it is well worth discussion ; 

 and that the new Council of the Eoyal Horticultural Society, Avhen it gets fairly 

 into harness, may in its wisdom see fit to move in the matter. — J, McIndoe, 

 Bishopihorpe Palace Garden^ York. 



\* The collections which Mr. McIndoe suggests should be got together in this 

 way, would prove most instructive, no doubt. So, too, would the exhibition of a 

 series of examples of the same variety of fruit from widely separated localities, 

 differing in soil and climate, the exhibits being in this case accompanied by 

 condensed geological and meteorological observations. Supposing some half- 

 dozen or dozen varieties of repute were thus got together annually, the elite of 

 our fruit lists would soon be worked off. — Ed. 



THE CARROT GRUB. 



BEGIN this paper with a quotation from Duff, the gardener poet : — 



" The smallest midge that mounts the air, 

 Can breed a gardener toil and care," 



and it is so Avlth the carrot-fly, Psila 7-osce, whose larva will sometimes 

 destroy a whole crop. I am not acquainted with the habits of the insect, nor 

 exactly with those of its larva. Loudon mentions that " the most approved 

 remedies against the larvae, are thick sowing, in order to afford supply both for 

 the insect and the crop ; and late sowing, especially in light soil, thus permitting 

 the grubs to attain their fly state before the seed comes up." The first part of this 

 advice seems good enough, but at first sight not the other, because the Carrots are 

 " worm-eaten " during their summer's growth — at least, I have found live maggots 

 in them in August, but have doubts if there be more than one grub in each diseased 

 Carrot. Then again, supposing the pupse to be developed or the insects bred in the 

 early part of the season, as Loudon has it, the flies, according to the common rule 

 of " insect life," would lay their eggs on the late-sown cro^ss, and thus renew the 

 plague. But happily that is not so ; the pupaj, like those of many of theu- race, seem 

 to lie in the ground in winter, and attain the fly state in spring in time to lay their 

 eggs on the early crops. Unhappily the injury effected by the larvM is not perceived 

 before the tops of the young carrots become rusty or brown ; and by this time 

 the maggots have got too firm hold of them, for any remedy to be of much use. 

 Some, however, recommend dressing the affected crops with lime, soot, salt, and 

 soap-suds ; and a mixture of spirits of tar Avith sand, saturated, and applied to 

 the soil " before digging, at the rate of about one gallon to sixty square yards," 

 has also been suggested ; but such remedies cannot touch the grubs without 

 injuring the crops. The same applies also to the pupa?, but with still more 

 force, because they are encased in tougher skins. 



The best remedy seems to be deep trenching, in order to bury the pupro deeper 

 in the ground than their usual winter cparters ; likewise to sow on fresh ground 

 apart from where diseased carrots have grown the previous season ; and for a 



