Report  on  Wireworm. 
119 
strengthening  straw  grown  on  land  deficient  in  saline  matter.  If  farmyard- 
manure,  and  especially  stable  dung,  were  turned  over  and  salted  in  spring,  or 
salted  after  having  been  spread  in  the  drills  previously  to  being  covered,  I 
believe  we  should  have  fewer  grubs  of  all  sorts. 
“ James  Kay,  Bute  Estates,  Rothesay." 
The  above  points  are  well  worth  further  observation  and 
consideration,  for  one  great  principle  of  prevention  of  wireworm 
attack  is  to  press  the  land  so  firmly  that  the  wireworms  have 
not  free  passage  in  the  soil ; and  it  is  plain  this  state  cannot  be 
thoroughly  attained  where  farmyard-manure  is  used  in  the  con- 
dition in  which  it  is  commonly  applied  to  the  soil  ; and  where 
large  quantities  of  any  kind  of  vegetable  matter  that  takes  long 
in  rotting  are  added,  the  difficulty  is  of  course  much  increased. 
Further,  it  has  been  observed  that  the  wireworm  of  the  common 
striped  click  beetle  * has  been  found,  and  sometimes  in  great 
numbers  in  dung,  and  in  vegetable  manure  or  in  vegetable 
earth  ; and  thoroughly  rotted  horse  dung  has  been  found  to  be  a 
feeding-place  for  the  wireworm  of  the  black  click  beetle,  f and 
consequently  these  kinds  and  conjecturally  several  others,  whose 
habits  as  far  as  we  know  are  very  similar,  may  thus  be  easily 
carried  out  to  the  coming  crop  in  the  manure. 
Rolling  and  Treading  with  Sheep,  &c. 
Notes  of  wireworm  being  most  destructive  on  light  and  friable 
soil,  or  when  land  is  in  this  condition  from  weather  effects,  such 
as  are  caused  by  long  frosts. 
Pressure  of  the  land  by  rolling,  or  by  treading  with  sheep,  or 
other  measures  calculated  to  compress  the  soil  firmly  and  keep 
the  wireworms  from  travelling  strongly  recommended  as  methods 
of  prevention,  and  as  remedies  when  attack  is  present. 
“ Wireworm  infests  land  of  almost  all  descriptions,  but  more  frequently 
those  of  a light,  friable,  and  dry,  or  moderately  dry,  texture.  It  seems  to 
delight  in  being  able  to  run  freely  from  one  plant  to  another,  and  damage  all 
crops  more  or  less  ; but  its  effects  are  never  so  plainly  visible  as  in  the  early 
spring  to  the  wheat,  barley,  oats,  and  small  turnips,  and  other  plants. 
“ Where  measures  of  prevention  have  been  unthought  of,  or  have  failed, 
and  the  young  crop  is  attacked — the  first  thing  to  be  done  would  be  to  roll 
with  a heavy,  flat,  smooth  roller ; or  with  a Cambridge  roller  or  ring  roller  first, 
and  a flat  one  to  follow,  and  this  should  be  done  when  the  land  is  as  wet  as  it 
is  possible  to  work  the  implement  on,  free  of  clogging,  in  order  to  arrest  the 
progress  of  the  worm  from  one  plant  to  another. 
“ To  drive  sheep  over  it  until  no  part  can  be  seen  without  a sheep  track  is 
also  a good  plan ; but  it  is  heavy  work  for  the  sheep. 
“ Adam  Lee,  Lydbury  North,  Shropshire. 
“ For  the  Right  Hon.  the  Earl  of  Powis.” 
Agriotes  lineatus,  Esch. 
f Atlwus  viger,  Linn. 
