1905.] Earnings of Agricultural Labourers. 



51 



Sometimes the pupa succeeds in pushing out through the dressing, 

 but the escaping adult gnat is caught in the sticky material. 



As pupation is generally in April, remedial measures should 

 not be delayed, but be undertaken immediately so as to prevent 

 the issue of a new brood of gall-gnats which would at once 

 proceed to egg laying, followed by another generation. 



Willows have also been attacked in Berkshire by a beetle 

 known as Galeruca lineola. The attack is not noticeable till 

 the end of June, when the osiers are about 3 ft. high ; the eggs 

 are then deposited on the leaves, and in a few weeks the 

 resulting maggot causes much damage by devouring the leaves 

 and top of the rod. 



The remedial measures suggested are : — (1) Collect the beetles 

 in their winter quarters and burn them. (2) Where possible, 

 flood the ground in winter, and place pieces of bark and planks 

 of wood a little above the flooded ground ; great numbers of 

 the beetles driven out of hiding will collect on these and can be 

 destroyed. (3) Shake down the beetles in spring and during 

 the season into vessels containing a little paraffin. (4) Pick off 

 and destroy the larvae. The use of the following spray is also 

 recommended : — 1 oz. pure arsenate of soda, dissolved in a little 

 water ; 3 oz, acetate of lead (sugar of lead), dissolved in a little 

 water ; pour both of these into 16 gallons of soft water (rain water), 

 and add 1 lb. of treacle. If this mixture be sprayed on the 

 young shoots and leaves, it will poison any beetles or larvae 

 that may feed on them. 



The wages, earnings, and conditions of employment of agricul- 

 tural labourers in the United Kingdom, which were investigated 

 by the Board of Trade in 1898,* are dealt 

 Earnings Of witfl in a sec ond Report [Cd. 2376] recently 

 Labourers . prepared by Mr. Wilson Fox, C.B., of the 

 Labour Department, in which particulars are 

 given for 1902, together with a mass of interesting information 

 as to the cash wages paid on a considerable number of farms for 

 a long series of years, the food consumed by farm labourers, and 



* See Journal, Vol. VII., p. 170, and Vol. VIII., p. 71. 



