CHAFERS. 93^ 



clean the ground of deep-rooted weeds, such as Couch- 

 grass, Coltsfoot, and Thistles, and is -washed down by- 

 rain into the soil so as to make the drains run milky 

 at a depth of three feet. This is procurable for little 

 if any outlay beyond cost of carriage from chemical 

 works, where it is thrown out as waste. Now attention 

 has been drawn to its value, and it is likely to be made 

 available. When it (or the gas-lime) has done its 

 first work in the caustic state, the action of the air 

 gradually turns the poisonous properties to sulphate 

 of lime, and they become a good manure of the nature 

 of gypsum. 



If a heavy dressing of this kind was spread on land 

 infested by any grub at the time when it is near the 

 surface, and without disturbing the land, we should 

 thus take it, as it were, unawares, and it would be 

 destroyed by the poison before it had time to get out 

 of the way, instead of, as is often the case, being 

 merely made to go down to a safe depth, from which 

 it presently comes up again to attack the new crop. 



To return to the Chafers. This is one of the classes 

 of attacks which we can at present only hope to meet by 

 speciah observations, in cases where as yet the histories 

 have not been recorded. Where do the Beetles feed ; 

 what kind of soil do they frequent; are they attracted 

 hy farm manure '} This is a very important point, for 

 the grubs of one or more kinds will leave preying on 

 roots to feed in manure, and it is possible this may 

 attract the Chafers for egg-laying. All these points 

 and many more are what we need to know ; and in the 

 next division of injurious Crop Beetles it will be shown 

 that equally hurtful attacks are put quite in our power 

 by a good practical knowledge of these points. 



The fifth section of Beetles belonging to the great divi- 

 sion of the Pentamera, or those having customarily five 

 joints to their feet (tarsi), is that of Skip- jacks and their 

 allies, scientifically the Stcrnoxi. These do little if any 

 harm in the beetle state, but in the grub-state — that 

 is, as what we know as Wireworms — the mischief 



