168 FARM AND GARDEN PESTS 



tween the character of the seasons and the prevalence 

 of insect plagues. It is commonly supposed that a 

 hard winter tends to rid the ground of such creatures 

 as pass their larval stages therein or hibernate above 

 ground as chrysalids or pupse. The most notable 

 refutation of that belief in my recollection happened 

 in 1895, when there was an unusual abundance of 

 insect life, although the preceding winter was the 

 most severe in the experience of the present genera- 

 tion. It may be thought that the extraordinary snow- 

 fall of that winter may have shielded subterranean 

 organisms from the tooth of frost ; probably it did so ; 

 but this year (1908) the land was visited by severe frost 

 so late as April 24th, and two succeeding days. From 

 twelve to twenty degrees of cold were registered in 

 different districts, and in those parts where no snow 

 feU the ground was frozen hard to a depth of several 

 inches. Yet in the south-west of Scotland where 

 widespread damage was done to vegetation, this visi- 

 tation has not interfered with an abnormal abundance 

 of ' pout,' or leather-grub, so serious in its effect that 

 questions on the subject have been addressed to the 

 representative of the Board of Agriculture in the 

 House of Commons. Hundreds, probably thousands, 

 of acres of young corn have been devoured by these 

 creatures, and have had to be sown a second time, 

 causing great loss to farmers. 1 



It is hardly necessary to explain that the leather- 

 grub is the larva of different species of Tipula or 



1 In the succeeding season, 1909, the land which was BO grievously 

 afflicted with leather-grub has been almost entirely clear of it. 



