DIAMOND-BACK MOTH. 



lol 



checked iu growth. Singling alternate rows would, in the event of 

 severe attack, probably be beneficial." 



On the 30th of June Mr. Gibb noted as follows with regard to little 

 harm being caused by the Diamond-backs, and also favoured me with 

 a few more observations as to treatment which he found answered : — 

 "Diamond-back Moth has been very merciful so far as we are con- 

 cerned, very little damage being observable so far as I can see to 

 Swede crops here. The crop of Charlock in the spring corn is un- 

 usually plentiful, so there is no lack of food for this pest this season. 



" Where Swedes are badly attacked before singling takes j)lace, 

 and the crop sown on the flat, as is usual in the south of England, I 

 have found great advantage from harrowing across the rows with 

 common harrows, which will be found to brush a great number of the 

 caterpillars off, then horse-hoeing can follow as soon as the plants 

 have gained their feet. Constant hoeing, harrowing, and dressing 

 with a forcing fertiliser, such as nitrate of soda or sulphate of 

 ammonia, will destroy the pest if anything will, and the increased 

 crop following this treatment will pay for the labour and expenditure 

 in manure." 



On July 26th, Mr. Gibb reported :—" The Diamond-back Moths, 

 although still to be seen in great numbers, have been kept in check. 

 Our Swedes show traces of attack, but seeing they are completely 

 covering the ground with green, — the rows being twenty-four inches 

 apart, and the bulbs the size of tea-cups, — the hurt cannot have been 

 great. With a dry time, I believe we would have suffered considerable 

 loss, judging by the number of moths visible and the damage caused 

 by caterpillars during ten days of dry warm weather." 



The following note, with which I was favoured in continuation of 

 his previous communication (p. 99) by Mr. S. B. Burroughes, of 

 Weston Hall Farm (East Dereham), Norfolk, shows, like the preceding 

 communication, the continued presence of the moths ; the beneficial 

 effect of moist growing weather ; also the beneficial effect of nitrate of 

 soda and soot as a dressing ; and also the beneficial effect of "sweeping " 

 by means of light boughs fixed to horse-hoes and scuftlers. 



Mr. Burroughes wrote as follows : — " I have had the moth in 

 every Turnip-field, but not to any great extent. As soon as I 

 discovered them in one field of very early Turnips, I at once gathered 

 a quantity of green broom off a heath close by, and made it into 

 bunches, and made fast to horse-hoes and scuftlers, which did much 

 good ; in fact, I did every field in that way, especially so when the 

 caterpillars were small. One field had them rather worse ; this one I 

 dressed with nitrate of soda and soot, which had a wonderful effect, as 

 the Turnips grew so fast that the leaves soon met across the ridges, 

 which were twenty-four inches apart. I hope for this year we have 



