114 
Report  on  Wireworm. 
other  four  acres.  Fires  were  made  about  11  yards  apart,  and  all  the  rubbish, 
weeds,  roots,  &c.,  burned,  and  the  ashes  spread  on  the  land. 
“ R.  W.  Christy,  Boynton  Ball,  near  Chelmsford." 
“ Probably  there  is  more  wireworm  in  wheat  after  seeds  than  at  any  other 
time  on  the  four-course  system. 
“ The  special  management  is  to  plough  the  seeds  up  soon  enough  to  give 
the  turf  time  to  rot ; by  rollings  to  give  a firm  seed-bed,  and  by  rolling  after 
putting  in  the  seed  (where  this  is  practicable)  to  compress  the  soil  with  a 
view  to  preventing  the  frost  lifting  the  surface  and  so  injuring  the  young 
plant.  The  judicious  use  of  fertilizers  strengthens  the  plant,  and  generally 
enables  it  to  resist  alike  the  effects  of  frost  and  the  ravages  of  the  wireworm. 
“ On  land  where,  after  seeds  have  been  grazed  for  two  or  three  years,  the 
ground  has  been  ploughed  for  wheat  in  August  (giving  time  for  the  turf  to 
rot),  and  a firm  seed-bed  has  been  secured  by  plentiful  rolling,  also  some 
fertilizer,  such  as  guano  or  superphosphate,  sown  at  the  time  the  seed  is  drilled, 
we  shall  not  find  any  unusual,  amount  of  wireworms.  If,  on  the  contrary,  it 
is  ploughed  later  in  the  season  and  the  land  treated  only  as  in  the  case  of  one 
year  old  clover,  the  poverty  of  the  surface  will  be  shown  by  the  large  propor- 
tion of  dead  plants  which  have  “ damped  off,”  whilst  the  remainder  “ slow 
growing  ” will  show  wireworm  active  amongst  them.  In  ordinary  cases — 
cultivating  the  land  immediately  after  harvest ; burning  all  grass  and  other 
roots  carefully,  and  so  destroying  the  eggs  of  the  beetle  ; repeated  ploughings, 
which  enable  the  rooks  to  carry  off  a large  percentage  of  the  wireworms,  and 
a thorough  pulverizing  of  the  soil  which  may  expose  them,  appears  to  me  to 
be  the  effectual  way  of  dealing  with  the  wireworms — or  larvai  of  the  click 
beetle. 
“ Ralph  Lowe,  Sleaford,  Lincolnshire .” 
“ Wireworm  is  especially  destructive  after  two  years’  seeds,  more  particu- 
larly when  the  land  is  sown  with  corn  immediately  after  ploughing,  and  so 
little  worked  that  considerable  spaces  are  left  between  the  unbroken  furrows. 
Early  ploughing  clover  lea  in  the  autumn,  and  rolling  wheat  or  oats  in  the 
spring,  have  been  very  advantageous,  but  we  attribute  this  rather  to  the 
solidity  of  the  land,  which  enables  the  roots  to  work  better,  than  to  the 
destruction  of  the  wireworm. 
“ During  autumn  last  year  we  used  gas-lime  on  clover  lea  before  ploughing 
up  for  oats,  and,  whether  from  that  or  from  some  other  cause,  there  was  no 
perceptible  injury  to  the  following  oat-crop.  On  a farm  which  I formerly  had 
in  hand,  but  which  I let  some  years  ago,  there  were  when  first  I began  to 
occupy  it  a great  number  of  wireworms,  these  almost  entirely  disappeared  in 
the  course  of  a few  years,  and  we  attributed  this  fact  to  the  more  thorough 
cultivation  and  working  of  the  land.  My  bailiff  suggests  that  the  removal  of 
weeds,  especially  ‘ twitch,’  in  which  the  click  beetle  may  have  laid  its  eggs,  is, 
perhaps,  the  cause  of  this.  It  is  certain  that  the  wireworm  is  fast  disappear- 
ing from  the  farm  I now  occupy,  and  we  have  found  no  appreciable  injury 
from  it  this  year. 
“ JosErn  Paget,  Stuff ymvood,  Mansfield .” 
“ Breaking  up  clovers  and  rye-grass  is  generally  done  early  so  as  to  insure 
decomposition  of  the  plant,  thus  giving  full  effect  to  firming  of  the  laud  by 
pressing  with  iron  ring-rollers. 
“ Treading  with  sheep  where  affected,  rolling,  and  harrowing  are  the  means 
generally  adopted. 
“ II.  IIayward,  near  Hereford.’’ 
“ I have  suffered  most  in  the  wheat  crops  grown  upon  the  clover  leys,  and 
the  best  treatment  that  I ever  discovered  was  to  plough  shallow ; and  after  the 
