Turnip Flea-Beetle. 101 



possessing as it does the power of inflicting damage to the 

 annual amount of many hundreds of pounds*, and defended not 

 only by its minute size, but by its astonishing powers of leaping 

 to a very great distance on the least approach of danger, is 

 surely an animal, above all others, calculated to teach the un- 

 thinking that, in the operations of the mighty economy of nature, 

 size is of the least importance; and hence, that the tiny creatures 

 which swarm around us are as worthy of our regard as those of 

 the largest size. 



It is not, however, in the destruction of the turnip plant alone 

 that the turnip flea is obnoxious. From the improved method 

 of agriculture, having for its object a succession of the various 

 kinds of crops, it has been ascertained that it is most beneficial 

 to commence the series with a crop of turnips ; and, if this fails, 

 the subsequent crops are more or less injured, and prevented 

 from arriving at their full extent. Convinced, therefore, of the 

 great importance of the subject, and unable to obtain, either in 

 entomological or agricultural works, any decisive information 

 respecting the real natural history of the turnip flea, the Com- 

 mittee of the Doncaster Agricultural Association issued, very 

 extensively, in the year 1830, the following series of ques- 

 tions : — 



1. In what sort of weather have you generally observed the 

 fly do most mischief to the turnips ? 



2. At how early a period of the year have you ever known 

 the fly begin to attack the young turnip plants ? 



3. Is there any period of the year after which you have ever 

 known the fly to attack the young turnip plants ? 



4. Have you known instances where the fly has attacked 

 turnips after they have put out the rough leaf? 



5. When this was the case, were there any peculiarities in 

 the season or weather ? 



6. Have you observed that the fly was more destructive on 

 one kind of soil than on another ? State the soil on which it has 

 been most destructive. 



7. Have you observed that the nature of the manure used has 

 tended to increase or diminish the injury done by the fly? State 

 the nature of the manure which you think tends most to diminish 

 the attacks of the fly. 



8. Have you observed the fly to be more prevalent in broad- 

 cast than in drilled turnips, or the reverse ? 



9. Have you ever tried any method to prevent or to cure the 

 damage done by the fly ? State what, and the result. 



* It has been calculated by an eminent agriculturist, that, from the attacks 

 of the Haltica alone, the loss sustained in the turnip crops in Devonshire, in 

 one year, amounted to not less than 100,000/. (Young's Annals of Agriculture, 

 vol. vii. p. 102,, quoted by Kirby and Spence.) 



H 3 



