DANGEROUS SUCKLINGS 



Another very dangerous root-enemy, which is common in 

 this country, is the Cockchafer grub or Whitegrub. (But it 

 is not nearly so bad as in France, where in the summer of 

 1889, a single farmer collected 2000 lb. of Cockchafers.) 

 The grub (each female lays seventy eggs) burrows into the 

 earth, and for no less than three summers remains below 

 ground devouring indiscriminately the roots of everything 

 he can discover. Underground, the mole is almost his only 

 enemy, but the rooks, starlings, and gulls, which follow the 

 plough, are watching for him. The Wireworm, Clickbeetle, 

 or Skipjack, is also an underground Jdemon which lives for 

 three years, and gnaws and worries at plant roots for the 

 whole of that time. It, however, shows itself above the 

 surface. 



A gentleman who had passed his whole life in the country 

 complained, in my presence, of the damage done by rooks. 

 He had had six thousand of them shot that summer, and 

 remarked that he had seen with his own eyes one of them 

 pulling out a young cabbage plant by the root. Of course it 

 was quite unnecessary to point out that the poor bird was 

 merely trying to get at the wireworms and devour them ! 



For some time I used to look out for great attacks of 

 wireworm in turnip-fields : when one was recorded, I never 

 failed to find that the crows had been ruthlessly shot down 

 a season or two before. 



All these, and many other insects, attack the roots, which 

 would be, one would suppose, quite well protected in the 

 depths of the earth. Therefore we find roots producing all 

 sorts of poisonous substances, tannins, and even strong- 

 smelling bodies, which keep off these pests. 



It is perhaps the sucking battalions of the insect army 

 which do the most harm. In themselves they are weak, 



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