affecting ihc Turn ij')- Crops. 
Ill 
burrow and rommoncos an attack upon the plant by catin«^ round 
the neck of it, and eventually dctacliing the upper part from the 
root; or a single leaf is eaten through at the stem, and when fallen 
on the ground, the nearest edge is dragged to the burrow, where 
it is drawn in and devoured during the day. Last year (183G), 
the turnips sown on the south side of a hill iiaving entirely failed, 
it was ploughed in furrows, and each fdlcd with yard-dung, and 
the earth turned over it by the plough ; and on the first rainy day 
a number of young plants of the Swedish turnip (thinned out 
from a patch in a moist situation on the north side) were planted 
on the ridges 18 inches asunder, and very soon grew remarkably 
strong and healthy; but after the few straggling plants in the 
part left unploughcd had been destroyed by the grub, then those 
at the extreme ends of the ridges began to disappear, and plant 
after plant followed from the same cause, until very few were left. 
Having noticed one fine plant at a distance of 6 or 7 yards from 
any other, and that a grub had just formed his burrow and 
begun to attack it, I dissolved \ of an ounce of common salt in 
a quart of water, and poured it over the plant, taking care not to 
let any run into tlie hole, or to disturb the grub. When I ex- 
amined the plant the following day, no further injury had Ijeen 
done to it, and on digging up the buiTOw I found it had been 
deserted by the grub, which I have no doubt had travelled to the 
next plant, although at least 6 yards distant, for there I found a 
burrow and a recent attack upon the plant which the day before 
was uninjured. I now washed this also and several others with 
the solution of salt, and for ten days (during which the weather 
was hot and dry) no one of them received further injury until a 
heavy shower of rain fell, after which (as I did not wash them 
again) they shared the fate of all the others. In such cases it 
might be worth while to employ children to dig them out, for 
they are easily found, as may appear from my having collected 
upwards of thirty in less than half an hour ; but the most keen 
searcher for, and destroyer of these is the rook, and I attribute 
their increase in this instance to the mistaken vigilance of the 
farmer in shooting any one of them which ventured to set foot 
upon the land, and hanging him up as a warning to his brethren 
oi the reward they would meet with for any friendly endeavours to 
relieve him from the ravages of so destructive an enemy as the 
grub." 
One cause of the great mischief arising from the attacks of the 
caterpillars of this and the preceding species is, their capability 
of travelling at a very rapid rate from one spot to another ; for in 
this way, as soon as a caterpillar has eaten through the root of a 
young plant, it marches off in quest of anodier, an#thus the evil 
is greatly multiplied ; and on removing a little of the earth sur- 
