TURNIP FLY. 83 



crop, which is in no way injured by the treading. The only injury is 

 to the sheep, as they are not willing to be treated so, and require a 

 dog to be used to keep them together, and at the same time make them 

 take all the ground in turn. We drive the sheep over part of the field 

 one day and part another, as it does sheep harm to keep them long 

 without food, and also to drive them early in the day ; and this should 

 be done at five in the morning, when the dew is on the leaf. (R. P. T.) 



BRUSHING THE PLANTS WITH BOUGHS. In the Thame district, 

 Oxfordshire, the following plan was found successful in saving a good 

 crop on one farm, whilst those around failed : After the seed had 

 been sown and was beginning to show out of the ground, the farmer 

 employed a boy with a thorn-bush, who harrowed up and down the 

 drills occasionally until the plants were strong enough to bear 

 up against the fly. The bush-harrowing so disturbed them that they 

 had not peace to get on with the destruction of the plants, and, so far 

 as the crop was concerned, the light harrowing seemed to do no harm 

 whatever. (T. B,) 



Elvaston, Derbyshire. We have several times saved the crop on 

 ridges by having some green boughs drawn along their tops once or twice 

 a day for several days ; this dislodged the fly, and greatly curtailed the 

 depredations. (G. M.) 



The plan of catching the fly- or flea-beetle by means of some viscid 

 matter was recommended and practised by Professor Buckman many 

 years ago, and in his excellent paper on insects which injure the 

 Turnip crop, published in the 'Field,' June 26th. 1869, he gives the 

 description of a machine for this purpose, simply made and easy to 

 work. " It consisted of three light boards of sufficient united breadth 

 to cover five rows of roots. These were banded together by two 

 stouter cross-pieces fore and aft, the ends of which were formed into 

 axles, on which ran low, turned wooden wheels." A pair of handles 

 were fixed at one end, and the broad board on its wheels was so light 

 that a boy could push it over the Turnips, " In this way we did as 

 much as twenty acres a day in the dry summer of 1864, killing 

 myriads of Turnip beetles and some two- winged flies, which were 

 scraped off in masses from time to time, and fresh thin tar painted 

 over the under part of the machine. By this means we saved our 

 crop, when all around us failed." 



In the notes I have been favoured with from Prof. Buckman, he 

 mentions : 



I should have used the machine for the main crop this .year, 

 but from the cause stated I had no occasion to do so. (J. B.) 



The following method of clearing young plants of fly is the same 

 as the above in principle, and is mentioned as serviceable : 



I nailed two boards together about twelve feet long and four 



