MUSTAKD BEETLE. b» 



Later on the beetles appeared in vast numbers in one district. On 

 the 23rd of September, Mr. Leonard wrote me again as follows : — " I 

 am able to say now that there are an immense quantity of beetles in 

 the Holderness district, and yet with the exception of about half an 

 acre in one field, and the headland in another, which are completely 

 destroyed, I cannot find any damage is done." Very possibly there 

 may be opportunity in this greatly infested district for experiment 

 next year ; but at present, that is, in the past season, we do not seem 

 to have made advance, at least to any notable and publicly announced 

 extent, in knowledge of benefit from dressings, washes, and the like. 

 Some of the soft-soap mixtures, which, from their success on very 

 similar attacks, I had hoped might be of use, turned out, though tried 

 with much care, a total failure. 



With regard to preventive treatment, or to treatment calculated to 

 push the crop on, and support it when attack is not absolutely over- 

 whelming, it seems to me but a due respect to our Mustard growers to 

 point out that a very large proportion of the really sound and valuable 

 information now dispersed in leaflets, pamphlets, &c., was originally, 

 and not long ago, contributed by themselves. In 1886, when attention 

 was especially directed to the losses occurring from attack of Mustard 

 Beetle, information was requested by the Council of the Royal Agri- 

 cultural Society, and, as being then entomologist of the Society, I 

 received much communication, which I formed into a Report printed 

 in abstract in the ' Journal ' of the Royal Agricultural Society, 1887, 

 and in full in my own ' Annual Report of Observations of Injurious 

 Insects ' for 1886. 



In these Reports will be found the first-rate information given by 

 our leading Mustard growers themselves, as the result of their long 

 experience, on such points as winter-locality of the pests, also the 

 treatment of ground to start and keep up good growth, manures found 

 especially effective, and many other points bearing both on the habits 

 of the beetles, and agricultural points to be attended to, and also the 

 very little benefit that was found to be derived from dressings was 

 entered on. 



For those who have not access to the information in extenso, the 

 very excellent four-page leaflet, or circular, issued by Messrs. Colman, 

 of the Carrow Works, Norwich, may be strongly recommended as em- 

 bodying, in condensed form, an enormous amount of sound information, 

 and also much useful suggestion, amongst which are some serviceable 

 observations on drilling Mustard twelve to twenty-four inches wide, so 

 that the ground can be horse-hoed so long as the hoe can be taken 

 through the crop without damage. Thus besides other good effects, 

 many of the beetles can be knocked off, and the chrysalids thrown 

 open in the disturbed ground to be preyed on by birds. Also dressings 



