Cultivation of Arable Land. Turnips D if cafes of Remedies for. }4&amp;lt;&amp;gt; 



Remedies of this nature are probably, however, much lefs to be depended upon 

 than thofe that have been mentioned above. 



As the effects of the flug, which is an animal of the white fnail kind, on turnip 

 crops, are often equally, if not more, deftructive than thofe of the fly, from its at 

 tacking them at a later period, and confuming not only the leaves, but the more 

 iblid parts of the plants, it is necefTary for the cultivator to guard againft them alfo 

 as much as poffible. In this intention various means have been propofed, but 

 probably without any of them being completely fuccefsful : from its having been 

 remarked, that thefe flugs chiefly quittcrreftrial habitations during the night-time, 

 or early in the morning before the fun rifes, when the furface of the foil is moift 

 from the dews, it has been advifed, by the older as well as the more modern 

 writers on agriculture, to have recourfe to rolling in the night with a roller of 

 confiderable weight, in order to crufh and deftroy them before the light or heat of 

 the day induces them to retire into the foil.* The fecond of thefe writers feems 

 indeed to believe that the practice may be ufeful againft the fly, where thefe infects 

 exiftin great numbers, and the operation is performed while the furface is wet, by 

 licking them up with the clammy earth, and in that way wholly removing them. 

 It may alfo be beneficial againft fuch infects, by confining the moifture more 

 effectually in the foil, or preventing the germs of the young turnip plants from 

 appearing before their roots are fully eftablifhed in the earth. 



The difperfing of different fubftances, fuch as vegetable afhes, lime, and foot, 

 in the ftate of fine powder, over the turnip crops by the hand, may likewife be 

 occafionally employed with advantage both againft the fly and flug, in the pro 

 portion of about ten or fifteen bufhels of the firft, and twenty of the others : the 

 former by the powers which they poffefs of deftroying fuch animals, their attract- 



The legs fix, but of a lighter colour than the body. The probofcis large, long, cylindric, and jointed, 

 and ending in a point, which the infed in either ftate infens into the leaf. When the animal couches a 

 feed, this appears to iffue from the abdomen, but on being raifed upon the legs, it evidently pafies to 

 the fnout. In walking it is carried under the belly, lying clofc to the thorax, and reaching about 

 halt the length of (he body. The abdomen nearly globular, flatted at the apex, with a minute black 

 club ftanding out on either fide, as in the fly and loufe. 



From thefe infects having been obferved to be extremely numerous, on the feedling leaves of turnip, 

 plants, not eating, but, as it were, sucking their juice or fap through long probofces, that fcrve to attach 

 them to the leaves in the manner of leeches, the intelligent author is led to conclude that they may be the 

 caufe of the very flow progrefs that is fometimes made by the young turnip plants to pufli into rough 

 leaf. 



* Ellis s Agriculture Improved, vol. II. ; Reynolds in TranCaclions of the Society of Art? : Mills s 

 Practical Treatife on HufbaBdry; and Vagg s Letter. 



