128 
Report  on  Wireworm. 
by  the  presence  of  many  eating  their  way  into  the  lumps  of  cake),  or,  as  some 
asserted,  by  poisoning  them. 
“ J.  Foreester, 
“For  Right  Hon.  Viscount  Portman,  Bryanston,  Blandford." 
*“  I have  no  doubt  that  the  rape-cake  I have  used  acted  as  a stimulus  to  the 
crop,  the  barley  being  much  heavier  on  the  portion  of  the  field  dressed  with 
rape-cake  than  on  the  other  portion ; but  as  the  part  on  which  the  cake  was 
sown  was  previously  infested  with  wireworms,  I believe  it  attracted  the  wire- 
worms  from  the  plant ; it  may  have  killed  them  also ; but  of  that  I am  not 
sure. 
“ Geo.  McQueen,  Coed-y-Dinas,  Welshpool.” 
*“  About  the  application  of  rape  dust  to  the  land  to  destroy  wireworm,  I 
may  say  that  in  1874  I got  2 tons  of  very  fine  rape  dust  (as  fine  as  flour). 
I mixed  it  up  with  turnip  manure,  and  sowed  it  in  the  drills  in  the  usual 
manner.  The  result  was  very  good.  There  was  no  wireworm,  and  the  crows 
did  not  look  for  any ; but  on  about  an  acre  of  the  field  that  got  no  rape  dust, 
the  worm  was  bad,  and  the  crows  pulled  up  the  turnips.  In  1875  I used 
3 tons  with  the  same  good  result.  Of  course  it  has  a certain  value  as 
manure  as  well. 
“ Edw.  Gordon,  Mains  of  Kelton,  Kirkcudbright.” 
“ Rape-cake  sown  on  the  land  has  been  found  of  much  benefit. 
“ Adam  Lee,  Lydbury  North,  Shropshire.” 
“ I have  seen  very  good  results  from  the  application  of  artificial  manure, 
particularly  from  rape-cake.  The  wireworm  is  very  fond  of  this  food,  and  by 
leaving  the  crop  in  order  to  feed  on  the  cake,  thus  frees  the  plant  from 
attack. 
“Fred.  Beard,  Horton,  Canterbury.” 
“ Rape-cake  of  good  quality  is  an  excellent  fertilizer  for  wheat  when  sown 
at  the  same  time,  and  turnips  do  well  as  the  following  crop,  but  I do  not 
think  that  it  would  have  more  effect  on  the  wireworm  than  superphosphate  or 
other  applications  of  equal  value  as  fertilizers. 
“ Ralph  Lowe,  Sleaford,  Lincolnshire.” 
*“I  took  this  farm  12  years  ago.  It  had  principally  been  a grazing  farm. 
A year  afterwards  I ploughed  up  a field  of  16  acres  of  old  ley,  and  sowed  it 
with  16  bushels  of  oats.  It  brairded  very  well,  but  very  soon  it  began  to 
show  signs  of  wireworm,  and  I scarcely  got  back  the  seed.  After  that  I 
sowed  fine  ground  rape  meal  mixed  with  the  seeds,  and  have  never  had 
anything  like  the  loss  which  I had  before  doing  so. 
“ My  mode  of  treatment  has  generally  been  to  mix  oats  and  fine  rape  meal 
together,  put  them  in  the  hopper  of  Hornsby’s  Sowing  Machine,  and  sow  this 
once  up  and  down,  and  then  across,  so  that  both  corn  and  meal  are  nicely 
divided  over  the  field,  and  from  that  I have  generally  a beautiful  braird  and 
very  good  crops. 
“ Chas.  Littleboy,  Barbersham  Castle,  Straffan,  Leinster.” 
“ About  eight  years  ago  I enclosed  a piece  of  old  pasture-land  and  converted 
it  into  a vegetable  garden.  The  first  year  the  cabbages  were  destroyed  and 
large  holes  eaten  in  the  potatoes  by  wireworm;  and  I dressed  the  garden 
