68 COEN AND GRASS. 



but for the most part the griihs change to the pupa state, in 

 which they can do no further harm so far as eating is con- 

 cerned, from July to September. 



Breaking up pastures and Clover-ley so early in the autumn 

 that the Crane Flies only find dry bare land unsuitable for 

 egg-laying, is a good treatment where the ground can be 

 spared, and deep ploughing of leas or old pasture is a good 

 practice, so as to bury the eggs and grubs deep in the soil. 

 The absence of heat and air in the first case prevents or 

 retards the hatching of the eggs; and in the second, some of 

 the grubs are killed, and many are injured by the unnatural 

 surroundings and want of food. 



A dressing of gas-lime on the pastures before breaking them 

 up would prove especially serviceable. If it was applied in a 

 fresh state the noisome smell would deter the fly from laying 

 eggs, and the poisonous matter it contains would destroy the 

 eggs already deposited, or the larv?e present in the soil. 

 There would be ample time before seed- sowing for the neces- 

 sary changes occurring to turn the deleterious substance into 

 a safe manure. 



Paring the surface and burning it with the grubs contained 

 in it has been much resorted to, but the practice is open to 

 some objections ; also it usually requires extra labourers, and 

 it causes delay in cultivation, which is especially inconvenient 

 in the north, where the climate allows little spare time in 

 getting the leas ready for seed. 



Thorough cultivation such as would break up, or bury, or 

 tear to pieces, all the clods of earth, tufts of grass, and other 

 rubbish that the grub shelters in, or feeds on till the new crop 

 is ready for it, is important, joined to such manuring as may 

 be best suited on each different kind of soil to press forward 

 the plant-growth. Attack in the early stage of growth, at the 

 time when the food-stores in the seed are just used up, and 

 the plant is beginning to depend on the first rootlets, is 

 particularly to be guarded against, as a check sustained at 

 this first ijeriod of growth is likely never to be entirely got 

 over. Therefore such treatment as will cause a rapid healthy 

 growth after sprouting will be found a good preservative, 

 rather than a state of soil which will allow only of the plant 

 slowly struggling forward, exposed for a much longer time in 

 its weakest state to attack. 



It is on cold wet land in general that this grub is most 

 destructive, and it has been observed that it is upon the damp 

 and clayey parts of a field that its attack is worst. The seed 

 germinates more slowly on the colder soil, and the same 

 amount of cultivation which is enough to put the rest of the 

 field in good tilth is not sufiicient to prepare an equally good 



