affecting the Potato-crops. 



95 



tised with success has been to search for them round sickly plants 

 and to dig up all that have been just eaten off by them. This 

 must be done every morning, the earlier the better, otherwise the 

 search may be unsuccessful, for after a short nap the culprit often 

 decamps to feast upon some neighbouring plant. I should think 

 water impregnated with brine, or nitrate of soda and perhaps strong 

 liquid manure, would drive them off and keep the gnats from scat- 

 tering their eggs in such an uncongenial locality ; and if the mag- 

 gots come out at night, as I have reason to believe they do, soot, 

 sea-sand, and salt, sprinkled over the surface, would, I expect, de- 

 stroy them ; but it must be repeated to prove effectual. 



Dickson advises, " When the grub is abundant, to roll the land 

 betimes in the morning in the early spring months, which may 

 crush and destroy them ; and when the fly abounds in summer 

 evenings on grass lands or fallows, rolling would destroy them and 

 prevent the deposition of the eggs : they are chiefly deposited in 

 the long grass, on sides of hedges and ditches : such places should 

 therefore be kept free from weeds." He also recommends <<r Keep- 

 ing the clover stubbles closely eaten down by sheep or other ani- 

 mals, after the hay has been taken, till the wheat-crop is nearly ready 

 to be put in, which has been found in some measure an effectual 

 remedy against the destructive attacks of the insect."* Children 

 and women might also be employed very advantageously in destroy- 

 ing the parent flies, by hand-picking and sweeping with nets. 

 The farmer must also encourage such birds as render him good 

 and constant service in reducing the insect tribes. Amongst them 

 I shall ever believe that the rooks and starlings, seagulls and lap- 

 wings, are most faithful allies, and labourers worthy of their hire. 

 I believe it was Sir Humphry Davy who first stated that jack snipes 

 are very fond of the larvae of Tipulw, and Mr. Yarrell tells us he 

 has repeatedly found them in their crops. Pheasants also must 

 feed largely upon them in the winter, for Mr. Milton, of Great 

 Marlborough Street, found in the crop of a cock pheasant, in De- 

 cember, 1844, 852 of these larvae ; they were alive, and nothing else 

 was found in the crop, excepting a few oak spangles. f A corre- 

 spondent also of the ' Sporting Magazine,' writes, " that no fewer 

 than 1225 of these destructive larvae (wire worms ?) were taken 

 from the crop of a hen pheasant in January.''^ No doubt these 

 birds pick out the larvae in corn and turnip- fields, and when it is 

 remembered, that the almost incredible numbers contained at one 

 time in the stomach, only made a single meal, the extent of their 

 services may in some measure be estimated. 



* Practical Agriculture, vol. i. p. 555. 

 t Gardeners' Chron., vol. iv. p. 814. % Vol. iv. p. 45. 



