TURNIP FLY. 7 



The loss therefore on the amount of acreage named in the twenty, 

 two English and eleven Scottish counties would at the above estimate 

 stand thus : For seed alone, 75,592 16s. : for one resowing, includ- 

 ing seed and cultivation at the rate of 15s. per acre, 503,952; the 

 same at the rate of 20s. per acre, 671,936. 



This amounts to just a little more, or considerably more, than half 

 a million, and with the consideration of the great additional losses 

 involved, though from their various nature it is impossible to calculate 

 them accurately without special returns, it gives some idea of the 

 amount of unproductive outlay, which, joined to consequent losses in 

 its train, has made the visitation of Turnip Fly of 1881 nothing less 

 than a national calamity. 



In the following pages I give the information with which I have 

 been favoured, as far as possible in the contributors' own words ; and 

 it will be observed that I have not included in the above estimates 

 several of the counties in which I have only notes of attack isolated 

 from the general area, though conjecturally, with the benefit of more 

 returns, these would have been added to the list. 



ENGLAND. 



NORTH AND EAST COAST. 



Observations regarding amount of presence of Turnip Fly at various 

 localities in England, accompanied in some cases by estimates of loss 

 and details of expenses of cultivation. 



NORTHUMBERLAND. Northern district, taking a radius of eight to 

 twelve miles S.E., and N. of the village of Ford. In this district the 

 large farmers maintain a permanent stock of sheep, and for winter 

 supply of these and of the cattle a large acreage of Swedes and 

 Turnips is required. In no year, probably, has the loss by Turnip 

 Fly been greater than last season (1881). 



On the great majority of Turnip-raising farms seed had to be 

 thrice sown, and in one case a farmer sowed no less than twenty 

 pounds per imperial acre before he could get a crop fit to single. 



On every farm where sheep are kept, some acres of White Turnips 

 are generally sown (these being matured early) as food for the sheep 

 in the fall of the year ; and in many cases these were entirely eaten 

 off, and the Yellow Aberdeen Turnip had to be substituted. To give 

 a single instance : on the farms of Fenwick Steads, Belford, which 

 consists in some places of loamy and in some fields clayey soil, the 

 first sowing was eaten clean off ; Swedes were next tried, but these 

 likewise were destroyed; and the whole acreage had to be resown 

 with Yellows, which at last were a fair average crop. The Flea-beetle 

 was noticed swarming by hundreds on the infested ground, but not a 



