228 
Methods of Preventing and Checking 
altliougli it may be found before long that sulphate of copper, 
applied to the plants when young, will prevent the appearance 
of these insidious parasites. There are indirect means of pre- 
venting the appearance of the above-cited insects and fungi 
given in the reports already mentioned. 
"VVireworms, the grubs of the click beetle (Elater lineatusf), 
most troublesome ravagers of corn and other crops, can be 
hindered in their destructive progress by dressings of gas-lime, 
at the rate of 10 cwt. per acre ploughed in before a crop is 
taken, especially in the case of clover leys and broken-up grass 
land. Top dressings put on the crops in the early spring, 
consisting of soot, from 20 to 40 bushels per acre, or guano, 
from 1 1- to 3 cwt. per acre, or nitrate of soda, 1 to 2 cwt. per 
acre, have been found valuable, acting as plant stimulants, as 
well as by keeping the insects from the plants. Salt put on at 
the rate of from 4 to 6 cwt. per acre is also useful as 
tending to make the neighbourhood of the plants unpleasant. 
Rape dust broadcasted at the rate of 4 to 8 cwt. per acre 
attracts wireworms to it, as they are veiy fond of it, and it 
thus gives the plants a chance of growing away from them, at 
the same time acting as a forcing stimulant. After all these 
applications the land should be well rolled with a Crosskill 
roller. 
In some seasons the corn aphis or plant-louse (Aphis granarid) 
causes much harm, first by exhausting the juices of the com 
plants — wheat, barley, and oats — and later on by getting into the 
ears and doing exceeding mischief. A^'hen it is seen that these 
aphides are on the corn plants in numbers it would be well 
to apply a wash of soft soap and quassia in the proportion of 
7 lb. of soap to an infusion made from 6 or 7 lb. of quassia 
chips to 100 gallons of water.' This should be put on with the 
Strawsonizer, before the corn plants get too high. Or, paraffin 
solution might be used, made of 3 quarts of paraffin to 100' 
gallons of water, with 4 or 5 lb. of soft soap ; or paraffin pure 
and simple distributed at the rate of from two to three gallons per 
acre by the same machine. It must be remembered that aphides 
multiply with incredible ra^iidity ; early dressings may therefore 
effectually prevent a bad attack. 
For oats affected by eelworms (Tylenchtis devasfatrix), which 
make tlie bases of the stems swell and the plants unhealthy 
and unproductive, applications of sulphate of potash at from 1 to 
2^ cwt. per acre have been found most useful ; and a mixture of 
' Soft soap has cost about I'ts. per cwt., and quassia 1 Is. per cwt., taking 
the avorage of the last five years. 
