THE HEATHER BEETLE 377 



be seen of the heather beetle this year, and this bears out our 

 local experience of the pest, that after a wet winter the numbers 

 and damage by them is very considerably checked, and that 

 after dry winters they get bad again. This year we have had 

 a very wet January and February, while these months in 

 1908 and 1909 were comparatively dry. I am sending two 

 samples of heather for your inspection. I am sending one of 

 young heather, which has turned quite white and withered- 

 looking, and is growing on the side of a hill facing the 

 south-east. The other sample is off a large stretch of level, 

 wet, mossy land. It seems to grow till a certain height, and 

 then to die away." 



(m) " My keeper says it [i.e., diseased heather] was confined 

 to the young heather, and the old was not frosted at all. Also 

 the west end of the moor, about 2,000 acres, was bad with it ; 

 and there was none on the remainder of the moor." 



(n) "The damage done on my own estate was not very 

 serious, but in neighbouring places it was much worse. . . . 

 With regard to the permanency of the damage, I do not think 

 there is much fear. I examined some of the ground as recently 

 as yesterday, and find that even where it has the withered 

 grey look, the twigs are green under the bark ; only in a few 

 cases is the previous season's growth dead, and in no case is 

 the two-year-old growth destroyed. ... I should have stated 

 above that the damage has only occurred where the ground 

 was very cold, wet, and waterlogged the sort of ground on 

 which, even when drained, it is useless to plant forest trees." 



(o) " We think the damage is chiefly, if not entirely, confined 

 to places where the sun strikes during the day, and .especially 

 in the morning. . . . My ground faces chiefly north-west and 

 west." 



(p) " With regard to your inquiries on the subject of rusty 

 red heather, we have noticed several small patches of this all 

 over the moor, and the majority of them are to be seen on the 

 south-west and south faces of the hill, and a fair amount was 

 to be seen on the low ground at ... This burned .appearance 



