86 STEM EELWORMS. 
the base of the bulb), were sent me from widely separated localities, 
from Kent up to Pineaitland, Kast Lothian, N.B. 
This attack, which there has been occasion to refer to frequently 
since it was first brought forward in 1886,* is caused by presence of 
Eelworms, so minute that, being only about the twenty-fourth of an 
inch in length, they are invisible to the naked eye, but with the help 
of a magnifier they are to be found in swarms in egg, larval, and male 
aud female condition in the deformed parts of the infested plants. In 
these they form for the most part, as, for instance, in ‘ Tulip-root,”’ 
Glover ‘‘Stem-sickness,”’ and ‘Onion-sickness,’” swelled growths, by 
which the attention of those acquainted with the different forms of 
development may be at once directed to the mischief that is going 
forward, and unless the attack has been allowed to become too much 
advanced it.may be mitigated, or, in the case of Clover Stem-sickness, 
successfully got rid of by various applications (see p. 94). 
The deformed growth is an external guide, and internally the 
attacked plants of Oats or Clover will often be found, where the attack 
is somewhat advanced, to be more or less hollow, with the surface of 
the cavity spongy, and gradually, with increase of the disease, the 
surface becoming yellowish or brownish with decay, and in this I have 
found great establishment of the Stem Eelworms. The Helworms are 
also to be found in the contorted shoots of ‘‘ Tulip-root”’ (see figure, 
p. 88), and I have found them at various ages in very young Oat 
plants sent to me in November, but amongst these I did not find more 
than a few that were apparently fully grown, and the ‘ Tulip-root” 
crowth of the Oat plant was not then developed. 
For figures of worms and egg, see p. 85. 
It may just possibly be of some practical interest (in regard to 
being on the alert to watch for appearance of first signs of ‘ Tulip- 
root’) to draw attention to the generally late sowing time which was 
necessitated in the past season by the adverse weather of the early 
part of 1897. ‘Not for years had the arrears of tillage work been so 
creat at the middle of April, heavy lands in most districts and light 
lands in not a few being more or less waterlogged. . . . Teams 
were kept hard at work, completing in the latter half of April tillages 
that ought normally to have been finished a month earlier.” + 
In repression of Eelworm attack, that is, both in destroying the 
pests and restoring healthy conditions, it has been found that such 
circumstances as give a sound vigorous growth are very important ; 
therefore it may be found that the circumstances which were un- 
favourable to the Oat plant in its early stage had to do with the 
prevalence of Tulip-root. But however this may be, more applications 
* See my ‘Tenth Annual Report on Injurious Insects,’ pp. 35-47. 
t See ‘‘ Agriculture in 1897,” ‘The Times,’ Dec. 27th, 1897, p. 8, column 1. 
