396 
Itepori of the Consulting lEntomologist. 
trampling of the horses. Also in another instance (at Dalton-ou-- 
Tees) it was reported to me on special inquiry, that in a field so 
badly attacked that the wheat was gone altogether in some places, 
yet the "head riggs" which had been trampled escaped attack 
entirely. 
The fact of open land favouring prevalence of attack is also 
pointed to by greater infestation having been found where the soil 
was hollow at the top of the ridges, by reason of the plough throw- 
ing the slices together from opposite directions. Notes have also 
been sent of land stirred by ploughing, scarifying, &c., in September 
and October, having the infestation, whilst contiguous land not 
worked quiet escaped. 
From inquiries in one district, I found that some fifty years ago 
it was the regular custom to roll fallow land after it was sown with 
wheat in the autumn, to prevent it being turned out by the frost. 
The loosening by frost is of course well known ; but on examination 
being made in many fields of this district that were now said to be 
" turned out," it was found that in every instance it was the wheat- 
bulb maggot, and not the frost, that had done the mischief. This 
observation seems worth attention in connection wth the others 
about "firmed " soils, and, my reports being from well-known corre- 
spondents, all details would be easily procurable. 
Date of autumn sowing appears not to affect attack. I have 
notes of maggot presence after sowing in October, November, 
December, and J anuary, and of a December sown crop being totally 
destroyed, but I have no notes of the infestations having been- 
found on spring-sown wheat, nor, on special inquiry, have I been 
able to find that it has been observed. This is a point which it would 
be useful to have precise information about. 
Rank manures appear to increase the virulence of the attack. I 
have notes of wheat after turnips manured with fish, and also after 
cabbages manured with sprats and fed oft" by sheep, having to be 
ploughed up, or being destroyed, and the attack is repeatedly men- 
tioned as following feeding oQ" by sheep. Also where pond mud 
was used as a fertiliser the attack was very severe, the area precisely 
corresponding with the portion of the field where the mud dress- 
ing had been thrown. Some chemical manures, however, appear 
possibly to do good. In one case of attack after dead fallow on the 
greater part of a field, two portions of which had been in mangel, 
a dressing of ten cwt. of superphosphate of lime to the acre gave a 
vigorous wheat crop, with no signs of maggot. 
I had hoped that we might have discovered locality of summer 
brood in wild grasses, and especially in couch grass, but three years' 
careful observations of a scientific correspondent have failed to 
show presence of the pest in any grasses in ordinarily accessible 
localities. 
Therefore (so far as I am aware) we do not even know whetlier 
there is a summer brood, and consequently we do not know whether 
the autumn and winter attack is started by egg-laying of what may 
be called the old flies, whicli have lived on from the middle of the 
