136 TURNIP, 



Ou October 20th Mr. Gibson noted further: — "My worst antici- 

 pations regarding the destruction of my Turnip crop have been 

 reahsed. In all my experience I never saw such a failure. The 

 fields are more like a wilderness than rich arable land." — J. G. 



Haddingtonshire. — Queenstonbank, Drein, N.B., July 23rd. From 

 Mr. John A. Begbie. — "I send you a box containing some leaves of 

 Swedes and yellow Turnips, in which you will find a caterpillar which 

 appeared on our Turnip crop a few days ago, and which has already 

 done a great deal of harm." (Specimens sent showed that some of 

 the Diamond-back caterpillars were then spinning cocoons for change 

 to the chrysalis state. — Ed.) " The whole of this district along the 

 sea-shore, from Dunbar as far as, say, about thirteen miles from 

 Edmburgh, appears to be attacked ; but inland I have heard of no 

 damage — indeed, a friend who farms within ten miles of me (but inland) 

 says he has none of it. 



" In Fife I hear it is also bad, in some places so much so that 

 they have had to plough up the crop. We thus have it on both sides 

 of the Forth. Whether it is confined to this district or not I do not 

 yet know. 



" Early Swedes and yellows in some places have escaped, while 

 later plants are stripped to skeletons ; but elsewhere I have seen an 

 early field of yellows quite white, and no doubt they will shortly be 

 eaten bare. 



" We have had very high temperature, and a very short rainfall in 

 June, and up to this last week, when heavy rain fell on Tuesday and 

 Wednesday last, aud to-day, the caterpillars are, I think, much fewer. 

 I am top-dressing with nitrate, which I hope may rush the crop (90 

 acres) out of trouble." 



Keplies to inquiries in circular (see p. 110), August 15th : — 



(1). " Kstimate of loss. — Crops which were far on have suffered 

 very httle, while those which were later in the same district, and even 

 in the same field, have been almost, or sometimes totally, destroyed, 

 so that an estimate of loss is, at the present time, impossible. A 43- 

 acre field of Swedes of mine looked miserable about the end of July ; 

 but now, having been top-dressed with nitrate, and pushed on by 

 moisture and heat, it is looking, except in a few spots which were 

 badly bitten, a very fine crop. And until the end of the year it will 

 not be seen if the damage done in July has affected the yield. If we 

 have open growing weather in the back end, the chances are that the 

 loss of time and damage may be fully made up. 



" 17 acres of yellows on my farm have suffered severely, and I have 

 sown 150 lbs. of Rape, and harrowed it in between the cirills of the 

 Turnips. The loss of Turnips maybe overhead 30 per cent, in some 

 places the whole crop is gone ; in other spots it is not touched. 



