CHAFERS. 91 



eggs in ground which is either cracked, or will allow 

 of the female burrowing down into it to lay (the state 

 and kind of ground is an important matter) ; she lays 

 from twelve to as many as thirty eggs, from about four 

 to eight inches deep. The grubs from these hatch in 

 a few weeks, and feed on roots ; may be devastating 

 young Fir plantations, or attacking Flax, or Carrots, 

 or many other crops, or ruining grass fields ; there is 

 a surprising variety in the kind of crop infested. After 

 feeding for three or four years, they go as much as two 

 feet or more down into the ground to turn to chrysa- 

 lids, from which the Beetles come up in the following 

 summer, that is, the fourth (or, according to other 

 opinions, the fifth) summer after they were hatched. 



Many of the Chafers only fly at some special time 

 in the day, and rest during the other hours in the 

 leafage of trees. The only way that appears known 

 to get rid of the Beetles is to profit by this habit. Find 

 what trees they frequent, and at what time they are 

 resting, and then beat them down. They may be 

 beaten down on cloths, and gathered up in any conve- 

 nient way and destroyed ; but it is a simpler plan to 

 have a drove of pigs in waiting, which will destroy the 

 Chafers before they can be ready to fly away. This 

 plan of beating is found to answer both in European 

 and colonial practice, as it stops present damage to 

 the leafage, and coming increase from eggs that would 

 be laid. 



One great point is to keep the female from going 

 doivn into the ground to lay her eggs. Sometimes, 

 where the soil is of soft vegetable remains (as amongst 

 the Cofl'ee plantations in Ceylon), it is found that 

 laying a coat of the clay subsoil on the top answers ; 

 and, for field treatment, it has been advised to lay a 

 good covering of some harder material, as marl, or 

 road-scrapings, on the surface, or to give a top-dressing 

 of salt or gas-lime, or some application which might 

 make the surface unsuitable for laying. Probably 

 gas-lime would be very serviceable, and the washings 



