102 TURNIP. 



comes in about three weeks later than might otherwise have been 

 the case. 



" I would recommend that there should be no hurry in adopting 

 this remedy, especially if the attack is a serious one. I think it would 

 be better to be a few days late, and so secure, if possible, nearly 

 all the beetles, rather than commence too soon and perhaps have a 

 second edition on the new blossoms. This remedy appears to be a 

 certain one as far as destruction of beetles is concerned ; the one 

 other important thing is to try and arrange for it to be done just 

 before rain." 



On the 14th of May, Mr. Geo. Maiden, of Cardington, Beds, for- 

 warded to me some specimens of Swede-heads, which he noted as 

 being infested with two kinds of insects, which proved on examination 

 (as well as those previously described) to be specimens of the Turnip- 

 seed Weevil, or Ceutorhynchus assimilis, and the Turnip Flower Beetle, 

 or Meliijethes cBneiis, with possibly some specimens also of another 

 species of Meligethes. 



Mr. Maiden wrote accompanying : — " You will remember that last 

 July I had some correspondence with you in respect of the maggot in 

 the Swede seed-pods, by which an immense amount of harm was 

 caused to the seed crop, and that I forwarded some pods containing 

 tnaggot for your observation. The damage done then was caused by 

 one or both of these varieties I believe, as every head of seed is just 

 now the feeding ground of one or more of these flies, Avhich are in a 

 most active state, and it is at this period that they are probably doing 

 even more harm than they appear to (bad as that is), by laying eggs 

 near the ovary of the Swede flower, and which becoming enclosed in 

 the seed-pods hatches out, and in the form of the maggot destroys all 

 the seed. 



'• Undoubtedly, from the severe character of this year's visitation, 

 the whole of the seed (and the crop otherwise has up to now looked 

 extraordinarily well) would be destroyed were the crop in full bloom ; 

 and to save as much as we can we have been topping all the shoots, in 

 order to throw back the flowering period for another ten days or so, 

 hoping by that time the fly will have departed or assumed a less 

 injurious form. 



" You will observe that all the earlier blooms are already more or 

 less destroyed, and they are very busy on the latter ; they eat their 

 way to the heart long before the bloom opens, and one variety appears 

 to me to be quite as bad as the other." 



On the 13th of June, Mr. Maiden favoured me with the following 

 communication, mentioning that he would liave written sooner 

 regarding the Turnip-blossom Beetle and Weevil, but waited to see 

 what course these destructive little pests would pursue in the face of 



