204 TURNIPS. 



has been found to answer in keeping off attack, and on the 

 small scale of garden cultivation, when put by hand in a 

 narrow ring round the stem of an infested plant, has been 

 found to do good. The amount that is safe would vary with 

 the age of the plant and time of exposure of the gas-lime to 

 the air, but in the case of half-grown kale and gas-lime about 

 two months from the works, a ring about as thick as a finger 

 round (but not against the stem) is quite safe. 



The mixture of gas-lime, &c., found serviceable by Mr. 

 Fisher Hobbs as a remedy for Turnip Fly (see p. 190), would also 

 be worth trying as a remedy for the " Surface Caterpillars." 



At present, as far as I am aware, though it seems likely 

 that various applications might do more or less good, there is 

 no certainty about results, and the only two methods of 

 treatment which can reasonably be trusted to, to lessen 

 amount of grub-presence, are thorough disturbance of the 

 surface soil, or hand-picking. 



With regard to Jiand-2)ickinr/, this remedy is largely practised 

 in the Cabbage-growing district round Hounslow. Workers 

 are sent along the rows, with a blunt knife or pointed bit of 

 wood in one hand, and a flower-pot or any convenient vessel 

 in the other. The grub is turned out with the stick or knife 

 and put in the flower-pot, and thus much more rapidly than 

 might be supposed the field is cleared. The plan is un- 

 doubtedly tedious and expensive, but thus the grubs are got 

 rid of. If not removed the grubs will almost certainly go on 

 and injure or destroy another or more plants the following 

 night, and continue so doing ; so that the work of removal 

 will probably pay, where the state of the crop will allow of the 

 plan being carried out. 



In 1886 Mr. J. Craig (Bradford Estate Office), Weston- 

 under-Lizard, Shropshire, wrote regarding hand-picking : — 



" I had large numbers of the grubs picked from the roots 

 of my Turnips last year, after hearing from you, and thus, I 

 think, saved a good portion of the crop." And in a special 

 observation sent by Col. Coussmaker before quoted, he re- 

 ported sixteen quarts of the grubs picked from seven acres. 



Eelatively to disturbance of the surface as a means of 

 getting rid of this grub, Mr. Colbauen, writing to me from 

 Woolhampton, near Eeading, on the 23rd of Aug., 1886, 

 remarked : — 



" I have battled with this enemy for many years, and have 

 treated it with all sorts of dressings, but never found 

 anything so effective on a large scale as the free use of the 

 drags and harrows, especially amongst young roots. I have 

 this year over 100 acres of good Swedes, Turnips, and Man- 

 golds, only saved by the free use of the harrow. This brings 



