DISEASES OF THE BEAN CROP. 265 



above ground, they have to " cun the gauntlet " of another 

 and a different set of enemies, not less powerful, however, 

 for evil ; these are the " weevils," so-called. The weevils 

 or beetles, belong to the order Coleoptera, and to the family 

 Curculionidse ; and the species which attacks the beans 

 was called by Linnaeus, Curculio ; but it is now, as stated 

 by the able entomologist Curtis, comprised, along with some 

 twenty other beetles, all scourges of garden and of farm 

 crops, under the genus Sitona; the species called, as seen 

 above, by Linnseus, Curculio, is now named Sitona lineata. 

 These weevils or bean beetles, are of the same colour as 

 earth, and this, in conjunction with their habit of falling 

 from the leaves of the plants when disturbed during the 

 day time, and remaining with their limbs folded up quite 

 motionless on the soil, renders it an exceedingly difficult 

 task to discover them at work. They either destroy the 

 plants as rapidly almost as they appear above ground, or 

 erode or gnaw away the edges of those leaves which may 

 have been developed before their attacks commenced. The 

 weevils burrow in the soil during the dark, generally com- 

 mencing their attack shortly after daylight. The. end of 

 March is the period in favourable seasons when the weevils 

 commence their attacks, but more usually it is April be- 

 fore they appear with all their destructive force. Hence 

 may be deduced the practical suggestion, that the stronger 

 we can have the plants at this season, the more likely are 

 we to find them able to withstand their attacks. Com- 

 paratively little is known of the habits of the weevils or 

 beetles ; so that not -much progress has been made in the 

 discovery of a remedy or a means of preventing their at- 

 tacks. From the hard horny nature of the covering of 

 the insects, it is obvious that no external application, made, 

 with a view to destroy them, could be made without also 

 destroying at the same time the plants upon which they 

 feed ; hence the only resource left open to us is rendering 

 their food so unpalatable to them by some simple applica- 

 tion to it, as to drive them, as Mr. Curtis says, " to forage 

 elsewhere." This is done by dusting wood-ashes, soot, or 



s 



