142 Mr. Hardy on Turnip Insects during 1870. 



unless, perhaps, surpassed by some of the Lowland Scots. 

 Trained to arms he readily becomes a first-rate soldier. 



The Northumbrians between the Tyne and Tweed are, it 

 may be said, nearly of pure Anglican race, with very little 

 intermixture, save in Tyneside, where the people are more 

 mercurial, more excitable, more restless, showing signs 

 of a Cymric interblending. These men are rather less 

 stalwart, but very active, great runners, and often good 

 wrestlers. Of the same type are the townsmen of Newcastle 

 and Hexham. Many of the Tyneside men and the towns- 

 men have dark hair and eyes. Dark brown hair predominates 

 in many families. There is certainly Cymric blood, perhaps 

 to the extent of l-4th in Tyneside. 



On Turnip Insects during 1870. By James Hardy. 



During the summer of 1870, the Turnip Beetle, or " Fly," 

 (Haltica nemorum), has been a complete scourge throughout 

 the Border counties. Turnips might be sown early or very 

 late, in either extreme, there was no palliative, so long as 

 drought prevailed, and plants, insufficient in force for the 

 maintenance of the devouring myriads, kept up merely a 

 feeble and struggling existence. It was only through the 

 advent of showers long delayed, and a mild atmosphere, that 

 the crops got established, and at length out-grew their per- 

 sistent persecutors ; for not only did they swarm on the seed 

 lobes, but continued to perforate the foliage and delay the 

 growth, long after the plants were singled out ; some even 

 lingering in the fields till there were sizeable turnips. Near 

 the sea-side the damage was not so great as further inland. 

 My own Swedes did not require to be re-sown ; but as for the 

 white turnips, it was by mere dint of persevering sowing that 

 the ground got covered at all. Some parts of the fields, here, 

 produce wild mustard, or " Runch," (Sinapis arvensis). 

 This was found to be a great preservative to the young turnip 

 plants, in allowing them to assume the rough leaf unbitten. 

 The beetles took as readily to the mustard as to the turnip, 

 it being their natural food ; and I noticed that when the 

 Swedes were nearly forward for thinning, the mustard 

 obtained the preference. Owing to this, although the insects 

 in some places lay on the plants like gunpowder ; after side- 

 hoeing and thinning, the blanks were very few. I have 



