GRAMINEOUS CROPS. 91 



about three or four months), the sulphite and sulphide will 

 have been converted into sulphate of lime (a true plant- 

 food) by the action of the air. (2) Twenty or thirty 

 bushels of salt per acre have been recommended for eradi- 

 cating wire-worms. (3) Miss Ormerod recommends the 

 use of rape-dust or rape-cake " applied in the proportion 

 of five hundredweights to the acre." The " worm " is be- 

 lieved to be very fond of the cake, eating it greedily in 

 preference to farm crops. (4) Paraffin oil mixed with 

 water (1 to 20) has proved an effectual remedy, especially 

 for infested root crops. (5) Green manuring with buck- 

 wheat or white mustard, destroys the wire-worms as well 

 as the mustard beetle. 



The Skippers {Hesperia linea) belong to the Hes- 

 peridcB — a family of butterflies which (as a general rule) 

 carry their fore-wings upright, and their hind-wings in a 

 horizontal position when at rest. H. linea measures about 

 an inch across the extended wings. The wings are of a 

 bright yellowish-brown colour, with the margins and veins 

 blackish. These butterflies are popularly known as 

 " skippers " — so called from their short, jerky flight. The 

 larvae or caterpillars feed upon different species of grasses, 

 but do not produce the same amount of mischief as the 

 wire-worms. 



Moss in Pastures. The various kinds of mosses ^ 

 infesting grass lands hardly come under the designation of 

 " parasites," yet at the same time they are detrimental to 

 the growth of grasses ; and for this reason we include them 

 among the enemies of grass lands. By the growth of moss 

 in pastures, the grass becomes poor in quality and quantity. 



Prevention. — (1) As mosses require a considerable 



' For the life-history of a moss, see any good book on botany. 



