148 Cultivation of Arable Land. Turnips Bife&fes of Fly Remedies for. 



will probably feldom be the cafe. If any advantage is to be gained in this way, 

 it muft be by employing a plant which is preferred to that of the turnip, and the 

 feed of which is fomewhat quicker in its germination and growth ; as where this 

 is. not the cafe, the turnips may frequently be deftroycd before the other plants 

 be in a ftate to be fed upon.* It has been fuggefted that the ruta baga&amp;gt; or Swedifh 

 turnip, may be a more ufeful fubftitute in this view than the radifh ; as by its 

 being ftceped and the turnip feed fown dry, the plants would rife well together, 

 and thc^fly is well known to be fo eager in feeding upon it, that it is with difficul 

 ty the cultivator can prefcrve a fufficient plant. In this cafe it is hinted as a fur 

 ther advantage, that when both forts of plants remain without fuftaining any ma 

 terial injury, the farmer may have the option of cutting out either of them, as he 

 ,nay End themoft convenient and bcneficiaLf 



* Commercial and Agricultural Magaxine, vol. VII. p. $0. 



+ It is iloubrful whether the radifh plants are always preferred by this in ft (ft or not; as we have 

 4&amp;gt;ffen remarked in the garden, that where turnip and radifh crops were cultivated adjoining each other 

 {he leaves ot the former were equally devou-red with thofe of the latter. Mr. Marftvall, in the fecouti 

 -volume of the Rural Economy of the Midland Counties, after remarking that the infecl; is no* a jlii, 

 but a beetle of the latter of the kinds dei cribed above, gives, the following very accurate description 

 *&amp;gt;f it: The whole length of the body and head is, fays be, from one-twelfth to one-tenth of an inch, 

 and its width or breadth about half its length. The antennae confift of two points, and are about two- 

 thirds of the length of the body. The wing-cafes are concave, and join by two ftraight edges,, hav 

 ing the colour of- daik chocolate, with a ftripe of yellow white along the middle; occupying about 

 one-third of the ftirface, which is dimpled, polifhed, and fbeil-lrke, both fides the fame, the texture 

 being brittle as egg-fhelL The wings are folded back under the cafes, being membranous and nearly 

 twice their length, having two or thr.ee ftrong nerves Funning, about half their length. Their colour 

 a light brown or that of lione, but that of the nerves a dark brown. The legs fix and black, the two 

 fcind outs clubbed upwards. The head and breaft black and polifhed. The abdomen the fame, hav-^ 

 ing four articulations. 



In taking- t-his infeftfor the purpofe of examination, the author difcovered that he had bruifed a 

 Dumber of fot t infects oa the under-iides of the feedling leaves, which led him to examine them more 

 tart&illy, and to find thattbey were paved over with minute animals of the appis kind, having different 

 colours, as yellow, green, b!-ack&amp;gt; and two or three long-winged flies. On Itill more minutely examining 

 them ? Jie found that, both the animalcules and the flies were individuals of the fame infcft in different 

 ftatcs. 



He gives the following defcription of the flies : The body and head are black, fhort, nearly egg_- 

 fhaped, and about one-twentieth of an inch long, being fomewhat larger than a grain of milliard 

 feed. The wings four ; two wry long, Handing &amp;gt; high above the tail, more than twice the length of 

 the body; two very fhort, aot fo long as the body ; but both pairs tranfparent, and ftrengthened by 

 a few opake fkaight nerves. The shmie coppery and elegant. The antennae long, flender, and taper- 

 iyg, f but .the joints indiftinft, the former about three fourths of that ol the body. The colour black. 



