34 CORN AND GRASS. 



The following report,* sent on May 8tli,by Mr. William Sewell, of 

 Tillingham, Soutliminster, Essex, also mentions great damage, and 

 prevalence of the attack after fallow :— " The last three years we have 

 had a maggot eating our ^Yheat in these parts, and this year it is doing 

 more harm than ever, many of the Wheats being so bad that they have 

 to be ploughed up in some cases, and patched with Oats in many 

 others. The maggot, of which I enclose specimens, lives in the heart 

 of the stem of the Wheat, eating it completely out, and then going on 

 to another piece, making the Wheat, where there was originally a very 

 good plant and looking very well, almost completely disappear. It 

 seems to appear in the Wheat about the beginning of April or end of 

 March, and to attack Wheat, particularly, grown on whole fallows. 

 Where winter Tares are fed off, and then the fallow is made, they are 

 bad, but not quite so much as on a whole fallow ; and where spring 

 Tares are fed off later still, they are less harmful. Also, on Clover 

 layers (one crop cut, and then broken up) they are the same as on 

 Tares fed, and Pea-etches sown with Wheat seem a favourite place for 

 them, but Bean-etch Wheat seems quite free." 



About the same date, that is, on or just before May 8th, Mr. G. W. 

 Sanders wrote me from Church End, Haynes, Bedford, mentioning :— 

 " Several of the Wheat crops in this neighbourhood have been dying 

 off during the past month. On examination we find it is caused by a 

 small worm in the stem near the root." Specimens were sent, as well 

 as infested plants, in which some of the maggots were fairly full- 

 grown ; and in reply to my letter on the subject, Mr. Sanders noted 

 that " all the fields where the Wheat has gone off are after fallow, both 

 on my own and neighbours." 



Mr. J. Alex. Henman, on the 13th of May, sent me specimens of 

 the maggot from Bromham Grange, Bedford, as samples of an attack 

 which was destroying his Wheat plants ; and a few days later, hke 

 other observers, noticed it as worst after fallow, and also as nut havnig 

 extended to the more solid headlands. He observed :—" On the 

 portion of the field where the attack is the worst, there was no crop last 

 year ; it was a dead fallow. The attack has not extended to the head- 

 lands', which, from being trod in ploughing, were more solid ; also two 

 pieces in the same field were Mangold Wurzles last year, and ten cwt. 

 of superphosphate of lime was sown to the acre ; on these two pieces 

 the Wheat plant was very vigorous and healthy, without any sign of 

 the maggot ; even the outside rows are not touched." 



Mr.^Henman further observed, relatively to pressure of the ground : 

 _" It is a good plan, if fallow is sown with Wheat, to put on a 



• I beg to acknowledge, with thanks, this report, as being forwarded to me by 

 the Editor of the ' Field.' It is given at p. 742 of the number of the ' Field ' for 

 May IGth, 1891. 



