PINE WEEVIL. 263 



The second and most imj^ortant point in the habits of the 

 weevil is that of attacking young plantations, and especially 

 those that have been formed on recently cleared Fir forest 

 lands. It has been found that on land cleared of Scots Pine, 

 and planted within four years with Couiferfe, that there would 

 be few remaining uninjured two years after. 



The following method of treatment has been thoroughly 

 successful : — 



After the Pine crop is cut and cleared the ground is properly 

 enclosed, so as to exclude stock of all kinds, and, if required, 

 it is drained. The ground is permitted to rest the first 

 summer for the purpose of getting up all herbage as strongly 

 as possible, and in dry spring weather the whole is burned, so 

 as to destroy the eggs and food of the beetle, and as far as 

 may be stamp it out. After this the ground should be planted 

 with strong two years' transplanted plants. After each young 

 tree is planted a layer of earth is laid round about two inches 

 in thickness and eighteen inches in diameter ; this layer 

 should be beaten smooth with the back of the spade to prevent 

 the beetle lodging under any part of the rough surface. This 

 treatment was found to answer well, for as soon as the beetle 

 in search of food comes in contact with the bare earth it 

 immediately steers its course in another direction, and leaves 

 the plant untouched. The beetle is most destructive in dry 

 warm seasons. — (W. M'C.) 



Following up the same principles with different details, it 

 has been found a good plan, where planting has to be done on 

 a large scale, and the beetle is present to any extent, to take 

 out as many of the old roots as possible, burn all the rubbish 

 that is lying about, and graze the ground with cattle for three 

 or four years before replanting. — (W. W. E.) 



In the first method of treatment, allowing the growth of 

 grass, and firing it (as is observed), "stamps out" the attack; 

 in the second, the turning of the land into grazing ground for 

 "three or four years," gives time for all eggs or maggots to 

 have passed through their transformations before replanting, 

 and the presence of the cattle and their droppings on the 

 ground are an excellent preservative from weevils being 

 attracted to the spot.* 



The following remark is also valuable: — "I strongly re- 



* In a young Fir wood of about eight acres in West Gloucestershire that it was 

 wished to keep in trim order in connection with pleasure-grounds, it was the 

 custom yearly to " skirm " (/. e., rough-mow) the ground with briar or common 

 scythes, and fire the rubbish in a large number of small heaps piled amongst 

 the trees, and, where convenient, on the stump of a felled I'ir. When proper 

 attention was paid the fire did not run, and this surface treatment, together 

 with the general slight smoke from the smouldering heaps throughout the 

 plantation, was accompanied by (if it did not cause) an absence of Pine Weevils 

 which some years before had appeared in great numbers at the locality. — Ed. 



