INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 175 



seed sown; and many farmers turned their swine into their 

 pea-fields, not thinking them worth harvesting. The da- 

 mage in this instance was caused solely by the Aphis, and 

 was universal thoughout the kingdom, so that a sufficient 

 supply for the navy could not be obtained. The earlier 

 peas are sown, the better chance they stand of escaping, 

 at least in part, the effects of this vegetable Phthiriasis. 

 — Beans are also often great sufferers from another spe- 

 cies of plant-louse, in some districts from its black colour 

 called the Collier, which begins at the top of the plant, 

 and so keeps multiplying downwards. The best remedy 

 in this case, which also tends to set the beans well, and 

 improves both their quality and quantity, is to top them 

 as soon as the Aphides begin to appear, and carrying away 

 the tops to burn or bury them. — In a late stage of growth 

 great havoc is often made in peas by the grub of a small 

 beetle, [Bruchus granarius, L.,) which will sometimes lay 

 an egg in every pea of a pod, and thus destroy it. — Some- 

 thing similar I have been told (I suspect it is a short-snout- 

 ed weevil) occasionally injures beans. In this country, how- 

 ever, the mischief caused by the Bruchus is seldom very 

 serious; but in North America another species (B. Pisi, L.) 

 is most alarmingly destructive, its ravages being at one 

 time so universal as to put an end in some places to 

 the cultivation of that favourite pulse. No wonder then 

 that Kalm should have been thrown into such a trepida- 

 tion upon discovering some of these pestilent insects just 

 disclosed in a parcel of peas he had brought from that 

 country, lest he should be the instrument of introducing 

 so fatal an evil into his beloved Sweden a . In the year 1 780 



a Kalra's Travels, i. 173. 



