40 On the Wheat-midge. 



in Devonshire and Cornwall. These localities, together with 

 those I mentioned in my report, leave us in no doubt of its very 

 general distribution, and must satisfy every one of the importance 

 of discovering, if possible, some effectual means of diminishing its 

 injuries. 



HUcJiam, Suffolk, \Wi Oct., 1841. 



VI. — On tJie Use of the Great or Jersey Trench-Plough, exhl- 

 hited at the Societies Annual Meeting at Liverpool, in July, 

 1841. By Colonel Le Couteur. 



I SHOULD not have ventured to invite the attention of this great 

 Society to the Jersey Trench- Plough had I not given much con- 

 sideration to the subject, and observed that in many parts of 

 England and Scotland, where the cultivation of root crops is so 

 much practised, the crops are not so heavy as I consider they 

 might be under an improved system. 



I attribute, in a great measure, to the deep ploughing in Jersey 

 the very heavy crops of potatoes, parsneps, carrots, and wheat that 

 are raised ; perhaps also the deep ploughing leads to the very- 

 large crops of hay and after-grasses that are grown there by or- 

 dinary farmers. 



It is presumed to be correct to say that as nearly as farm hus- 

 bandry can be assimilated to garden culture, ever keeping in 

 mind the farm account, or working in the best manner at the least 

 expense, the more likely are we to raise not only heavy but clean 

 crops. 



If this position be a correct one, it is absolutely necessary to 

 call attention to the fact that the best market-gardeners, who are 

 found in the vicinities of cities (take London and Paris, for in- 

 stance), practise deep husbandr}^ or trench with the spade. If 

 a man finds a shallow soil, he is seen to deepen it, not alone with 

 his spade, but with a mattock or pickaxe. 



I have seen beautiful celery, parsneps, carrots, and potatoes, 

 raised on almost pure sand, with a little earth trenched in at 

 bottom, and a good dressing of manure between the sand and the 

 earth . 



It is scarcely necessary to quote many authors in support of 

 this opinion. 1 will merely bring to recollection that Mawe, 

 Sinclair, Loudon, and other English writers, observe that '' the 

 merit of trenching in general is superior to plain digging for 

 many principal crops, or any plantations, as with the top soil all 

 weeds and dung are more effectually buried in the bottom, and 



