BOOTS FOR STOCK FEEDING. 145 



prevail. The drill should be adjusted to sow not less 

 than three pounds of seed per acre if in rows, two and 

 one-half feet apart, — not that so much seed is necessary, 

 if any considerable percentage vegetates and escapes the 

 fly, the scorching sun, and other unfavorable influences. 

 It is probable that, if eight ounces of seed could be 

 evenly distributed, each grain germinate, and Anally 

 produce a healthy plant, there would be a sufficient 

 number of plants to the acre ; but it would be a very 

 unwise procedure to stint the seed to save, for the present 

 moment only, the pocket. The English, to whom we 

 look for instruction in root culture, use seven to eight 

 pounds per acre, but the turnip has been so generally 

 grown in their country for generations, that the fly, fed 

 and pampered, has become a most formidable pest ; so 

 much so that great difficulty is sometimes found in 

 securing a *^ stand." 



The Turnip Fly.— The ''turnip fly" just referred 

 to is a jumping beetle, of greenish-black color, and 

 about the tenth of an inch in length, sometimes so 

 destructive as to devour every plant before the farmer is 

 aware that the seed has sprouted. This active little 

 insect hibernates in protected places, and from eai-ly 

 spring to autumn produces a rapid succession of genera- 

 tions. The mature insects apparently reveling upon the 

 marrow-like material of the cotyledons and first two or 

 three pairs of leaves of the turnip and other cruciferous 

 plants, deposit eggs upon the leaves, which, in a few 

 days, suffer as much from the attack of the unseen larvae 

 as from the parent. 



The remedies, which are only palliative, are thick 

 seeding, dashing with sulphur or plaster, light applica- 

 tions of carbolic or whale oil soap, etc., and when all 

 have failed or about to fail, re-sowing in fresh ground. 

 A wet season is prejudicial to the rapid growth of the 

 fly, and, with a rich soil, the young plants soon acquire 

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