too LETTERS TO COLONEL COUSSMAKER [CHAP. xm. 



are drawn greatly magnified, with a view to hanging the 

 sheets on walls of schools. The history, and the simplest 

 means of prevention are given in the very plainest words 

 I could find. 



Have you my current report ? It contains a good 

 deal on that great pest the Ox warble fly (fig. 5) con- 

 tributed by practical men cattle owners, veterinary observers 

 and the like. I would, with the greatest pleasure, ask your 

 acceptance of a copy if you would permit me to do so. 

 If you have studied its habits in India, I should greatly like 

 to be in communication with you on the subject. The 

 Colonial Company procured me a few estimates of damage 

 to hides which were of much service as showing com- 

 parative amount of injury in different parts of the globe, 

 but I much want to find whether in India the larva is 

 found to penetrate below the subcutaneous tissue into the 

 flesh. I am aware from one of my contributors connected 

 with inspecting army supplies in India, that at one time 

 meat for the troops was apt to be so damaged from what 

 he considered to be this attack, that it was to some extent 

 useless. The locality was not far from Kurrachee. If you, 

 as a student of insect life, could give me any information on 

 this point, I should be thankful for the addition to the notes 

 I am still collecting. 



August 4, 1885. 



Many thanks to you for so kindly taking the trouble to 

 write about the injury to flesh possibly caused by the 

 Warble maggot ; it would be of great service to know about 

 it. Doubtless your care of your cattle had a great deal to 

 do with their being free from injury if we could but get 

 even the moderate amount of care applied which is needed 

 to put on a dressing when attack is seen it would make 

 an enormous difference. 



The Dart or Turnip moth caterpillar is doing damage 

 now and I do not believe there is a better remedy than 

 scraping out the grubs, but this is very troublesome till 

 they are larger. I see in a report on the " Cutworms," as 

 they call these creatures in the U.S.A., that there is very 

 much less injury from them on ground which has been 

 well salted. It is thought that the salt drawn up into the 

 plant makes it distasteful to the caterpillars. I do not 

 know how this may be, but in a district of the Eastern 

 Counties reported from last year where previously they 

 had been quite set against anything " artificial " they were 

 finding the turnips on salted lands answered very much the 



