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294 Annual Report for 1887 of the Consulting Entomologist. 
earth containing " clover-sick " plants, and also on diseased 
onions, were found to become "tulip-rooted." 
The investigation showed that clover suffered from various 
causes, and notably from fungi, and various kinds of eel-worms 
were present in decayed stems, &c., but where specimens of true 
" clover-sick " plants were sent, there were the Tylenchi in such 
numbers and conditions as to point them out as the cause of the 
disease ; and also in the most sevei-e and well-marked attack the 
shoots or buds along the main clover shoots had the same kind 
of swollen and stunted appearance that we find in other cases 
of Tylenchus attack. 
The only note sent in this year of an entirely successfal 
application to the diseased clover was top-dressing with a 
mixture of sulphate of potash in large proportion, together 
■svith sulphate of ammonia and steamed bone-flour. This 
brought on the crop very satisfactorily. The history and habits 
of this mici'oscopic eel-worm have been gone into before, but a 
broad xiesv of this case appears to be that oats, clover, and 
onions are the most liable of our common crops to this attack. 
The Tylenchi likewise infest some of our common weeds, and 
can remain for a great length of time alive in the surface soil 
of infested fields. Therefore deep ploughing, which will put 
the minute worm too far down for it to come up again, is a very 
desirable measure. 
Inquiries were also forwarded regarding such common crop 
pests as wii'eworms, " rust," i.e. fly maggot attack to carrots, 
cabbage butterfly, caterpillars, &c., &c., and also regarding 
turnip grub (the caterpillar of the Turnip or Dart moth, the 
Agrotis segetum), which has done great mischief to turnip bulbs 
in many places during the autumn, and is very likely still at 
work where the weather is not too sevei-e. From the circum- 
stance of this cateii^illar living through the winter, it is very 
desirable to skim and stir the surface of fields that have been 
badly infested, for if the caterpillars are thrown out of their 
shelters they will be killed by bad weather, though mere cold 
would not hurt them in their shelters in the ground. " Blight," 
as it is called, that is, attack of aphides on turnips, has been 
very bad, but there does not ajipear to be a hope of checking 
this attack until some plan can be arranged for washing, as 
with aphides on hops. 
Amongst insects injurious in fruit-farming the grubs of the 
Pear Saw-fly, and likewise the Phuto^ifus (a small mite which 
causes a gall growth of the leafbuds of black currants), were 
troublesome, but both these attacks can be easily kept in hand, 
and the extremely simple method of preventing attack of the 
winter moth caterpillars in spring by smearing bands round 
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