364 OBSERVATIONS ON BLIGHT. 



a beetle, in common parlance known by a name the very men- 

 tion of which elongates a farmer's countenance at least an inch 

 and a half — the turnip-jly. 



The turnip-fly* is not always of one kind, but the difference 

 between them is not important, they only alter in their paint, 

 their build is always alike : the most common is painted bottle- 

 green ; but in some fields all are painted black, with a white 

 line from stem to stern on each side down the deck ; they are 

 so active, that the only way I could ever obtain them in the 

 newly-sown fields was by sweeping the surface with a gauze net 

 on an iron-hoop at the end of a strongish stick ; they jump 

 like fleas directly they see you. This insect, or rather its 

 grub, commences its attack on the turnip directly it is up, 

 devouring the two cotyledons and the little heart, and some- 

 times, in a few days, leaving the field as brown as the day 

 it was sowed. 



Schemes out of number have been tried to get rid of or kill 

 this little pest wherever it has appeared, the particulars of 

 which, if I were to relate, with the accompaniment which I 

 must add, that they have all turned out to be failures, would 

 not, I fancy, be of much use ; but I one day was cogitating on 

 the matter, and argued to myself thus : — it would be a difficult 

 task to catch and kill twenty thousand fleas if shut up in 

 a room with them ; but it might not be quite so difficult to 

 prevent twenty thousand fleas coming into a room where there 

 v/ere none previously ; and the wisest way seemed to me to 

 find out how they could come there. Now, as all straight- 

 forward inquiries of this kind are laughed at, and at once yclept 

 theories, I kept all my operations to myself, and now, for the 

 first time, offer them to the public. I am sorry to say they 

 are yet incomplete, but still they will be found of some use to 

 those who are disposed to pursue the subject. 



I had always observed that there was the greatest quantity 

 of grubs on very young plants, and that they were very various 

 in size, and that it was not till the plants were a fortnight or 

 three weeks old that the beetles appeared in any quantities; 



^ Our contemporary, Mr. Loudon, wishes us to show off our learning by 

 " supplying the systematic names to the insects" of which Rusticus treats, oi", as 

 our correspondent would probably term it, interlard his observations with crack- 

 jaw, nie turnip-fly is an Allka ; the one with white lines down the back is 

 A. Nemorum. — Eu. 



