54 MANGOLDS. 
my description as printed in the ‘ Agricultural Gazette’.of Aug. 12th, 
at p. 155 :— 
«Your correspondent’s Mangold-leaves show a most seveve.attack 
of Aphides, commonly known as ‘Plant-lice.’ I have seldom seen 
Mangold-leafage so coated with cast skins, dirt, and mould or fungus. 
But in the specimens sent me the insect attack, from its very intensity, 
appears to be killing itself out; there are myriads of cast skins, but I 
find very few live Aphides, and from the way in which the old slins 
are massed together with mould, the presence of oth r fungi, and the 
discoloured and sickly appearance of various of the live Aphides which 
are to be seen, I should hope that they were infected, and were ee 
killed by the mould. 
_ But with regard to remedy, I do not see that any dressing can be 
applied to clear the leaves. Even in a bowl of water, and after soak- 
ing, it takes some rubbing with the finger and thumb to clean the 
leafage even moderately. On getting the dirt off, I find brown patches, 
which may have very likely been originally caused by the Mangold- 
leaf Maggot burrowing between the two sides of the leaf; but in the 
present condition the patches show only-as destroyed portions.”’ 
The contributor of the specimens had mentioned that he had sown 
1 ewt. of nitrate of soda per acre over them with no effect ; and re- 
garding this I suggested :— 
‘Probably nitrate of soda is the very best of all applications, for it 
will keep up the growth of the plants under attack if anything will; 
but I would suggest clearing away coated leaves, lest the fungus of 
other kinds besides the filmy growths (commonly known as mould) 
should spread to the sound leafage. 
‘*Mangolds have such great power of ‘recuperation,’ so to say, 
struggling up to a good paying crop where even a small centre, if 
healthy, is left (after the cause of evil is removed), that I would 
certainly suggest to your correspondent that any application to drive 
on growth would be the best form of treatment; and of such appli- 
cations, guano, soot, and also mineral superphosphate, have all been 
found to do good, especially the last-named. But nitrate of soda 
stands, so far as I know, quite at the head for efficiency.”’—(H. A. 0.) 
In these kinds of infestations there seem only three ways of dealing 
with the matter,—one that of killing the Aphides; but, though this 
can be managed by use of soft-soap mixtures, as in Hop-washing, or 
on Aphis-infested fruit-trees, it appears next to impossible to bring the 
plan to bear in the case of large-leaved field-crops like Mangolds or 
Turnips. R 
Another point which deserves very attentive consideration is 
checking increase of attack by destroying, as far as can safely be done, 
the infested leafage. Where the leaves, as in the attack mentioned 
