224 FRUITS. [chap. 



grudge them a little of the corn when they have so largely con- 

 tributed to^\ ards bringing the whole of it to perfection. 



396. BLACK GRUB.--It should be called the brown grub, for 

 it is not black. In its workings, it is half way between a rook- 

 worm and a caterpillar. It lies snugly under the ground near the 

 roots of the plant in the day-time, and comes up at night, eats 

 the plant off at the stem, or eats out its heart. This is a most 

 perverse as well as a most pernicious thing ; it is not content, like 

 the caterpillar, the snail, or the slug, to feed upon the leaves ; but 

 it must needs bite out the heart, or just cut off the plant at the 

 bottom. Lime has no power over it : nothing will keep it off : 

 no means but taking it by the hand : in a garden this may be 

 done, by examining a little about the ground just round the stem 

 of every plant ; for as soon as it has destroyed one plant, it gets 

 ready for another for the next night's work. In a garden, this 

 thing may be destroyed, or kept down ; but, in a field, it is impos- 

 sible, and many a field has had its crop almost totally destroyed 

 by this grub. 



307. WIRE- WORM,— This is a little yellow worm, which, at 

 full growth, is about an inch long ; and it is called wire-worm be- 

 cause it is very tough and difficult to pinch asunder. It is bred in 

 grass-land, and in old tufts of grass in arable land. A piece of 

 land, digged or ploughed up from a meadow, or grass-field, will, 

 for a year or two, be full of these worms, which carry off who;e 

 fields of wheat sometimes. In gardens they are very destructive. 

 They attack tender-rooted plants, make a hole on one side of the 

 tap-root, and work their way upwards till they come to the heart. 

 When they have done that, they go to another plant, and so on. 

 You perceive when they are at work, by the plant dropping its 

 leaves ; and the only remedy is to watch the plants narrowly, and, 

 as soon as you perceive the tips of the leaves beginning to flag, to 

 take it up, and destroy the worms. They are particularly fond 

 of lettuces that have been transplanted ; and I have had whole 

 rows of lettuces destroyed by these worms, in spite of every pre- 

 caution. 



308. WOOD-LOUSE. — It is a little grey-coloured insect of 

 a fiat shape, and about twice as long as it is broad. When you 

 touch it, or when it sees itself in danger, it forms itself into a ball, 

 and very much resembles a Dutch cheese, and is, by the children 

 iu the country, called the cheese-bob. Its nanje of wood-louse 



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