62 MANGOLDS. 



neighbourhood, as well as in the Rugby district, had their Mangolds 

 similarly affected. 



This proved to be a decidedly bad attack of Mangold-leaf maggot ; 

 some were just turning to chrysalis state in the blistered leaves, or 

 amongst them, as the case might be, and many were straying about 

 amongst the leaves sent. Most of these were nearly or quite full 

 grown. 



With regard to treatment of the field, Mr. Bruce Foy observed : — 

 " I mucked the field in the autumn, and drilled the Mangold seed on 

 April 25th ; they have been flat hoed and are now singled out ; but I 

 notice each day the leaves are becoming discoloured, and in some cases 

 I have found as many as twelve grubs of various sizes and ages in one 

 leaf, and you will find plenty of them in the sample I send. I have 

 to-day sown soot between the rows of one acre, and on another acre a 

 mixture of nitrate of soda and salt, in the hopes of pushing on the 

 plants." 



A few days later (on the 29th of -June), Mr. Richard Ramsden, 

 writing from Chadwick Manor, Knowle, Warwickshire, observed : — ■ 

 " I send you herewith enclosed a sample of a Mangold leaf with 

 attacking insect or insects. I do not remember ever having seen such 

 an attack before, and it has covered the whole field of two or three 

 acres, scarcely a plcmt escaping." In this instance I had not enough 

 sample to enable me absolutely to make sure by examination of the 

 nature of the attack, but it was not open to doubt that it was of Man- 

 gold-leaf Maggot. 



In a further communication, Mr. Richard Ramsden added the 

 following remark as to previous non-observation of the attack, which 

 would probably explain also the previous non-observation of it in other 

 localities where it was reported as now being first seen : — " Carefully 

 thinking over the matter, I expect I have seen it before, but when the 

 Mangold was in a more advanced stage of development, and possibly 

 then I attributed it to the leaf being scalded by sun. This attack is 

 very general ; more plants are evidently struck by it than have escaped, 

 and it is in two fields of mine." 



About the same date as the above, namely, the 29th of June, Mr. 

 JolinE. Thurnall, writing from Royston (on the border of Cambridge- 

 shire and Herts), sent specimens of the Mangold Maggot, with the 

 following clear description of the attack given in few words ; — " It 

 appears that some fly deposits its eggs on the back of the leaf, and 

 that a maggot then appears between the tissues of the leaves, and 

 causes the leaves to fail and ultimately destroys the plant." Mr. 

 Thurnall further added that he had been that day (June 29th) over a 

 Mangold field on a farm near Kuebworth (Herts), and every plant 

 seemed to be afi'ected. 



