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Report  on  Wireworm. 
thoroughly  with  lime,  salt,  and  soot ; hut,  notwithstanding  that,  the  vegetables 
were  destroyed  in  the  second  year,  nearly  as  badly  as  before.  I then  covered 
the  garden  with  rape  nuts,  and  have  had  no  wireworm  since. 
“ R.  Pavkr-Crox,  OrnJiam  Hall,  Boroughbridge.” 
Wireworm  in  Hop-Land. 
“ Wireworms  frequently  are  most  injurious  to  hop  plants,  especially  in  fresh 
planted  grounds.  These  are  the  larvae  of  the  striped  click  beetle,  Elater  lineatus ; 
and  they  attack  the  ‘ sets  ’ or  cuttings  which  are  put  in  to  form  the  hop  stocks 
directly  they  are  planted.  They  bore  into  the  juicy  parts  of  the  stems  of  the  sets 
and  suck  out  the  sap;  and  they  gnaw  off  the  shoots  as  fast  as  they  make  their 
appearance.  Old  meadows  and  orchards  are  often  converted  into  hop  grounds  ; 
and  in  these  sometimes  the  mischief  caused  by  wireworm  is  very  great,  and 
unless  expensive  means  are  adopted  to  catch  them  two  or  three  years  elapse 
before  a good  plant  can  be  obtained. 
“ Planters  do  not  like  to  pare  and  burn  the  turf  with  the  humus,  as  it 
affords  so  much  food  to  the  plants  if  it  is  turned  in  and  buried  deeply ; and  all 
that  can  be  done  in  these  circumstances  is  to  feed  the  sward  off  as  closely  as 
possible  before  it  is  ploughed  in. 
“ As  hop  land  is  usually  kept  particularly  free  from  weeds,  and  the  hop- 
plants  are  set  from  5s  feet  to  6£  feet  apart,  the  food  for  the  wireworms  is  not 
plentiful,  and  they  therefore  concentrate  their  attacks  perforce  upon  the  hop- 
plants. 
“ The  soil  is  often  disturbed  by  the  nidgetts  between  the  plants,  and  by  the 
spud  around  them,  so  that  for  the  sake  of  peace  and  quietness  the  wireworms  take 
refuge  in  the  plant  centres,  and  soon  destroy  the  plants  if  they  are  not  checked.  If 
hop-plants  show  signs  of  weakness  and  decay,  they  should  be  closely  examined 
for  wireworm.  Even  in  well-established  hop  grounds  that  have  been  planted 
for  a considerable  time,  wireworms  do  much  harm  ; and  weakness  or  slackness 
of  bine  which  is  often  produced  by  their  attack  is  attributed  to  other  causes, 
such  as  the  unsuitableness  of  the  subsoil,  or  the  want  of  manure,  or  influence 
of  climate. 
“ When  the  presence  of  wireworms  is  discovered  in  the  plant  centres,  they 
can  only  be  got  rid  of  by  catching  them  ; they  are  beyond  the  reach  of  caustic 
applications,  and  of  the  effects  of  rolling  and  nidgetting.  In  these  circum- 
stances traps  should  be  laid  for  them  in  the  shape  of  small  pieces  of  rape-cake, 
mangold  wurzel,  turnip,  or  carrot  placed  close  to  each  * hill,’  or  plant  centre, 
but  the  best  of  all  these  is  rape  cake.  The  wireworms  soon  discover  these 
tempting  baits,  and  speedily  bury  themselves  in  them,  and  women  are 
employed  to  look  at  them  two  or  three  times  a week,  and  take  out  the  wire- 
worms  snugly  ensconced  therein.  As  many  as  200  wireworms  have  been 
taken  in  this  way  from  one  plant-centre  in  the  course  of  three  weeks  or  a 
month.  It  is  a fallacy  to  imagine  that  rape-cake  directly  causes  the  death  of 
the  wireworm  by  inducing  them  to  gorge  until  they  burst.  Rape-cake  acts,  as 
has  been  shown  above,  as  a capital  trap  by  which  they  may  be  caught  and  got 
rid  of ; or,  when  it  is  applied  broadcast  to  hops  or  corn,  by  taking  their  atten- 
tion from  the  plants  which  they  had  attacked  before  the  rape  was  applied. 
“ I saw  a striking  instance  of  this  last  spring,  in  the  case  of  a field  of  oats, 
taken  alter  wheat,  in  which  the  plants  were  looking  thin,  patchy,  and  sickly 
from  the  attack  of  wireworm.  6 cwts.  of  rape-dust  were  put  on  per  acre, 
which  diverted  the  insects  from  the  plants,  and  at  the  same  time  stimulated 
their  flagging  energies.  The  crop  was  the  stoutest  1 ever  saw,  and  yielded 
close  upon  11  quarters  per  acre.  If  the  straw  had  not  gone  down  in  places 
after  the  deluge  of  rain  the  yield  would  have  been  greater. 
“ Rape  cake  is  very  largely  and  generally  used  as  a fertilizer  for  hops,  and 
YOL.  XIX. — S.  S.  K 
