BEAN BEETLE. 109' 



and garnered, the maggot is there too. It feeds 

 "within ; and though it does not prevent the Bean 

 sprouting, yet it lessens the size of the seed-leaves, 

 and consequently weakens the first growth, and thus 

 damages the strength of the future plant. Here one 

 good method of prevention is to examine a sample 

 seed, to find whether it is infested. The maggot turns 

 to a Beetle within the seed ; but before it does this it 

 eats a tunnel to the outside, only just leaving the outer 

 skin at the end. This, having nothing behind it, sinks 

 in, as if a knitting-needle had been slightly pressed on 

 it. By this little round dented-in mark you may know 

 infested seed ; if, instead of the mark, there is a small 

 round hole, the Beetle has completed its work within, 

 and has gone. By these two marks you may judge as 

 to the state of the seed ; and further, if there should 

 be the mark showing the Beetle is still within, it is 

 unsafe to sow, as attack will follow. The Beetles will 

 presently come out, and as soon as the Beans in which 

 they were sown have grown, and are in flower, their 

 sometime tenants will mount to the blossoms, and lay 

 eggs to start a new attack. The Bean Beetles begin 

 to appear in February, and for this reason autumn- 

 sown Beans are the most likely to be infested, as the 

 Beetles are still within. 



During the last few years it has been found that 

 dressing infested Beans, before sowing, with a mixture 

 of 1 lb. blue vitriol, and 1 pint of McDougall's sewage 

 carbolic to 6 quarts of water, answered well. The 

 above mixture is enough for six bushels of Beans. 



The Cabbage and Turnip Gall Weevils do harm 

 under ground. The female lays her egg on the root 

 or the under-ground part of the stem, or in a hole in 

 it which she forms with her snout ; and in consequence 

 of the irritation thus set up the small lumps form, 

 which we know as Galls. In each of these the mag- 

 got hatched from the egg feeds, until it is full fed. 

 Then it gnaws its way out and forms an earthen case, 

 in which it turns to a pupa, and thence to a Weevil. 



