OBSERVATIONS ON BLIGHT. S6o 



foundation. I offer this observation to those who deem at- 

 tempts to stifle inquiry into such abstruse points, by the aid of 

 ridicule, to be as unphilosophical as it is to give, without 

 hesitation, to an organ whose uses are, and probably ever will 

 remain unknown, the name of another organ whose uses are 

 perfectly understood ; thereby equally tending to stifle inquiry 

 by instilling the idea that the uses of the organ thus inappro- 

 priately named, had been clearly ascertained. To such persons 

 I would also point out the admirable remarks of M. Straus- 

 Durckheim upon the antennae of the cockchaffer, which are 

 also in favour of the opinion that they are instruments of 

 hearing. 



The Grove, Hammersmith. May 1, 1833. 



Art. XLII. Observations on Blight. By Rusticus, 

 of Godalming. 



The hop-fly is an animal whose injury to man is perl 

 not quite of an unmixed kind, for its depredations serve to 

 keep up the price of hops so as to afford a tolerable profit to 

 the grower ; whereas, were there to be no fly, the crop would 

 be larger than the consumption, and the price consequently not 

 a remunerating one. I well recollect, that after the immense 

 crop of 1826, the price did not repay the grower his rent, 

 taxes, and labour ; and the farmers, a set of men, I am sorry 

 to say it, with less forethought generally than any other class 

 of tradesmen, most improvidently went to work and were silly 

 enough to grub up their hop-yards and sow wheat. This took 

 place in several instances in the district between Farnham and 

 Alton, and at the same time both in Kent and Herefordshire ; 

 and afterwards, when the price recovered, some of the finest 

 pasture land in the world was ploughed up to make hop-yards 

 which have not yet paid even the tithe ; there is, however, a 

 blight whose ravages are without any proportionate good, or 

 any good at all that I am aware of: a thief that robs our sheep 

 and our cows of their winter food, and often compels their 

 owners to starve them to skin and bone, thereby causing 

 murrain and all manner of disease to the kine, empty pockets 

 to himself, and a host of accompanying evils ; and this thief is 

 a little glossy, tiny, skipping, hopping, merry-andrew kind of 



