CHAPTER XXXII 



Wire-Worms Crane-flies and Skip-jack Beetles Midge grass and rot in 

 sheep Natural enemies of grubs Partridges Snipe Pheasants 

 Moles Shrews The Water Shrew Development of races. 



MUCH of the cultivated land here, particularly in the higher 

 valleys, is much addicted to " Wire- Worms," against which 

 the farmer is constantly waging war. His chief, indeed 

 almost his only weapon, is lime ; and although this is expen- 

 sive at the railway station, and its carting to the outlying 

 farms arduous work, potatoes, and even corn crops, can 

 hardly be grown without it, and its use is persisted in with 

 praiseworthy perseverance. Peaty soil, bordering upon the 

 hill, is often most infested with the " Worms," and the 

 benefit derived from the caustic action of lime upon peat 

 is well known ; but, in order to pay for the dressing, the 

 peat must be of good quality, and hereabouts it is generally 

 very poor and thin. The question of the relationship which 

 cost bears to returns is, consequently, one which is ever 

 recurring to the mind of an outsider ; but it is one that is 

 so difficult of satisfactory solution, that it may be left to the 

 interested party the farmer to decide for himself. Lime 

 at any rate tends towards checking the ravages of insects, 

 and it is with these only that we need concern ourselves. 



The Wire- Worms recognised here are generally classed 

 as of two kinds : the soft, but tough-skinned, dark-coloured, 

 "Leather-jacket," and a harder, yellower, and altogether 

 more wiry-looking creature ; but what relationship (if any) 

 the one bears to the other, or whence they come, or where 

 they go, are matters that receive but very scant attention. 

 It may be useful, therefore, briefly to notice that the 

 Leather-jacket is the larval, or caterpillar stage of a Crane- 

 fly or " Daddy-long-legs " ; the other a " Click," or " Skip- 



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