132 
Qbseruilions on the various Insects 
embryo youn<; live under the rind, secure at that period from any 
outward applications. Mr. Sinclair goes on to say that " mixing 
the lime and salt with the soil previously to sowing the seed, or 
applying it to the surface after sowing, proved best ; for when 
lime and salt are mixed and deposited with the seed, vegetation 
is retarded from 2 to 12 days, and more, beyond the natural pe- 
riod. This fact was proved on the seed of 8 different species of 
plants, sown in 4 different kinds of soil. They modify, but are 
not a specific remedy for this disease. Seeds from roots per- 
fectly free, sown on land that never was sown with turnip-seed 
before, produced in both instances bulbs more or less affected." * 
Another contributor to the Gardener's Magazine says the 
attacks of insects causing the malformations in turnips can only 
be averted by making the plants offensive to the parent- fly ; and 
this, it has been lately discovered, can be done by incorporating 
with the soil soap-boilers' waste, or any other substance of similar 
alkaline quality. Mr. Major recommends the plants to be watered 
with a mixture of 1 gallon of soap-suds to 4 quarts of gas-water, 
or, in lieu of the latter, 2 quarts of gas-tar ; either will do, as the 
only use of the mixture is to create an offensive smell. Mr. T. 
Smith says he is satisfied, from six years' experience, that the 
refuse of a charcoal-pit, spread i an inch thick before sowing the 
seed, and merely scuflled in with the point of a spade, so as to 
mix the top soil and charcoal-dust together, is a remedy for the 
grub and mouldiness in onions ; f and it effectually prevents the 
clubbing in the roots of cabbages and cauliflowers. 
Few of these remedies will, I fear, be of much service on a 
large scale : the farmer must therefore encourage the natural 
enemies of these pests, and remember that rooks, sea-gulls, 
magpies, and partridges, as well as many species of small birds, 
are eminently useful in cleansing the soil from such troublesome 
insects. If poultry be turned into the field they require attention, 
otherwise they are apt to scratch up the soil. My own opinion 
is, that nothing can 1)e more likely to encourage the maggots of 
the cabbage and turnip-flies "| than fresh dung, in wliich it seems 
they luxuriate ; and, such being the case, by spreading it in a 
raw state, an entire field may at once be inoculated with the 
disease. 
* Memoirs of Caledonian Hort. Society. 
f Antliomyia rcparum (Gardener's Chron., vol. i. p. 39G) : the magijots of 
this fly are so similar in aj)pearance and economy to those of the luinip, 
that many fjardeners take them to l)e the same species. — Vide Major's 
Treatise on Insects, p. 1C5. 
X We have on a former occasion animadverted upon Ihc impropriety of 
calling the Altka Ncmonan hy the name of " turnip-//y which is here 
exemplified, for the above insect is truly the turnip-y//y ; and the A. Nevio- 
ruiii, the turnip-flea or black-jack, is as undoubtedly a beellc. 
