190 TURNIPS. 



plants and was followed by a good crop. This is no new 

 thing, as I have many times done so, and thereby saved the 

 crop, which is in no way injured by the treading. The only 

 injm'y is to the sheep, as they are not willing to be treated so, 

 and require a dog to be used to keep them together, and at the 

 same time make them take all the ground in turn. We drive 

 the sheep over part of the jfield one day and part another, as 

 it does sheep harm to keep them long without food, and also 

 to drive them early in the day ; and this should be done at 

 five in the morning, ivhen the dew is on the leafy — (Pi. P. Tanner, 

 Ogbourne Maizey, Marlborough.) 



Dry dressings of various kinds, as lime, soot, &c., have long 

 been known to be of service in checking fly attack, if applied 

 at the right time of day, — that is, when the fly was quiet in 

 the morning or evening or in dull damp weather, rather than 

 in sunshiny times, when either by its powerful leaping legs, 

 or by expanding its large wings from under their horny wing- 

 cases, the fly might at once remove itself from danger. Soot, 

 lime, road-dust, and others of the usual applications have 

 been found useful, and may all be serviceable if applied when 

 the dew is on ; but the remedy that appears the best proved is 

 the one noted by Mr. Fisher Hobbs as having never failed 

 during the eight years in which he made use of it. I give the 

 recipe and passage at length from his statement made before 

 the Council of the Koyal Agricultural Society, quoted in the 

 * Gardeners' Chronicle and Agricultural Gazette ' for May 28, 

 1859, p. 473 :— 



" One bushel of white gas-ashes " (gas-lime) ** fresh from 

 the gas-house, one bushel of fresh lime from the kiln, six 

 pounds of sulphur, and ten pounds of soot, well mixed 

 together and got to as fine a powder as possible, so that it 

 may adhere to the young plant. The above is sufficient for 

 two acres, when drilled at twenty-seven inches. It should be 

 applied very early in the morning wJten the deiv is on the 

 leaf, a broadcast machine being the most expeditious mode of 

 distributing it ; or it may be sprinkled with the hand care- 

 fully over the rows. If the fly continues troublesome, the 

 process should be repeated ; by this means two hundred to 

 two hundred and twenty acres of Turnips, Swedes and Piape 

 have been grown on my farm annually for eight or nine years 

 without a rod of ground losing plants. The above is a strong 

 dressing to be used when the fly is very numerous, and has 

 never failed when applied at night. Numerous experiments 

 have been tried, and amongst them I recommend the folloAv- 

 ing in ordinary cases. . . . Fourteen pounds of sulphur, 

 one bushel of fresh lime, and two bushels of road-scrapings 

 per acre, mixed together a few days before it is used, and 



