On the Insects affecting the Turnip Crop. 207 



were performed in clamp clajs^ or after heavy dews, the benefit 

 would be increased; for if the beetles leap in moist weather they 

 often fall upon their backs, where they stick, and, after being 

 exhausted, become torpid and apparently dead, if the air be cold ; 

 but they reanimate as they are dried by the sun. In cold and wet 

 weather it might not prove less efficient ; for multitudes of the 

 flies are then sheltered under and about the clods, which being 

 broken down, the insects must perish by the pressure ; and if 

 there were any chrysalides in the earth, they would in all pro- 

 bability suffer the same fate. 



There are many who consider that turnips should be sown im- 

 mediately after ploughing, and that much of the success attending 

 a crop depends upon the diligence employed in getting in the 

 manure and seed ; v/hilst some maintain that the land should lie 

 undisturbed for a fortnight before sowing. Such conflicting 

 opinions, as far as the fly is concerned, may often be reconciled 

 by the difference of the seasons when the observations were made.* 

 We know that turnips must not be sown in too dry nor too 

 wet a state of the soil, yet this is precisely the state most 

 fitted for the production of the fly ; for it is well ascertained that 

 a moderate degree of moisture is necessary to bring forth or to 

 hatch almost all insects, and if this be accompanied by a mild 

 air it is the better suited to them ; it is therefore reasonable to 

 expect that after a fine early spring the turnip-beetles will be 

 found most abundant. 



From the dislike the fly has to repeated wet, I have always 

 thought that watering the turnips would be highly useful ; and 

 this opinion is supported by Mr. Bayldon, who recommends them 

 to be watered every other day, four, five, and six times, if ne- 

 cessary, j Irrigating the land would not have so good an effect, 

 I think, as watering, because the beetles would only be floated off 

 the leaves, if they were detached at all ; and if they were left thus 

 for two or three days, there would be a great chance of their 

 recovering when the plants were left dry, whereas by the watermg 

 they would be forcibly brushed off, and get set fast in the earth 

 and die. The benefit would be most felt, I conceive, on heavy 

 lands, with regard to the annihilation of the beetles ; but it would 

 everywhere have the advantage of destroying the chrysalis, by 



* The perusal of the report in the Transactions of the Doncaster Agri- 

 cultural Society is strongly recommended, and in their " Analysis of the 

 Returns," the date of every year is alone wanting to make it invaluable. 



i' How is this to be done ? In a garden it might probably have a good 

 effect, but on a score of acres ? If, indeed, a water-cart filled with brine 

 could be conveniently once run over a field, it might, as there stated, prove 

 a partial remedy, and it certainly is worth trying : for even should it not be 

 effectual on that point, it would, no doubt, prove beneficial to the growth^of 

 the crop, — F. Burke. 



