19 



CHAELOCK. 



Observations regarding prevalence of Charlock after ivet seasons, and of large 

 amount of attack of Turnip Fly in the year following a large Charlock 

 crop, methods of eradicating Charlock, <&c. : 



Bradford- Abbas, Dorset. As it turned out my farm was overrun 

 with Charlock, the legacies of the last wet seasons ; it came up in the 

 Barley so thick that I expected the farm to look like a Colza-field; 

 but, strange to say, the " fleas " attacked these gay plants of Charlock, 

 and so completely destroyed it that there is now scarcely any Charlock 

 on the farm. A more complete clearance of a pest than they made 

 I never knew. Having done their work they went away, and my 

 Swedes, sown late, escaped their visitation. These were fairly good, 

 eighteen tons to the acre. I fortunately had not to sow a second time, 

 but they were late, or the crop would have been larger if the flea had 

 not taken them. (J. B.) 



There appears to be a clear connection between a prolific Charlock 

 crop and a fatal fly-attack succeeding it the next year. 1880 was 

 without doubt most remarkable for Charlock, so much so, in fact, that 

 many cereal crops on these Hampshire Hills were entirely choked with 

 it, so that many pieces of corn were not worth cutting. The soil on 

 my farm (West Worldham, near Alton, Hants) lies upon the peculiar 

 and rare "malm" or upper greensand, and, singularly, never suffers 

 severely from Turnip Fly, possibly because this soil is not particularly 

 favourable to Charlock. Another reason may be that it is capable of 

 such trituration that our Turnip tilths are like beds of flour (almost as 

 fine and white as common meal), and afford no cover to this insect, 

 which revels amongst clods ; a further cause may be the liberal use of 

 lime. (D. T). 



It is only fair to the Turnip Fly to say that it has this year done 

 much good in some districts in devouring Charlock. This weed is one 

 of the farmer's greatest enemies, and annually causes great damage to 

 the spring Corn-crops ; this year the golden carpeting has not been 

 seen, and this, I believe, must be placed to the credit of the Turnip 

 Fly. (E. S.) 



Before the Turnips came up the "fly" cleared whole fields of 

 Charlock in this neighbourhood (St. Albans). (F. S.) 



From observations in past years there can be little doubt but that 

 prevalence of Charlock and other weeds of the Cabbage kind in the 

 white crops have a direct influence on the amount of presence of fly 

 in the green crops following. It has often been noticed, when 

 Charlock was abundant on any part of a field, that it was on this 

 spot that fly- attack began, and also that hedges and other surround- 

 ings, where weeds of this and similar kinds are allowed to grow 



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