affectiny the Peas and Beans. 
437 
crops that famine must ensue, and next, the species would become 
extinct, for want of food for the young broods. The services also 
of the poor persecuted Mole are most essential in acting upon the 
masses of the insect race, and especially upon the formidable 
hordes of the insect which partakes of its habits, and from which 
it receives its name. Bouche says, " This little quadruped, called 
by Linnzeus Talpa europaia, is continually digging in pursuit of 
insect larvae, particularly grubs, mole-crickets, and earth-worms, 
and destroys them. I have observed (he says) that a field which 
contained an endless number of root-worms or mole-crickets was 
freed entirely by the moles in two years. They certainly destroy 
many young plants by burrowing, but their usefulness is found to 
overbalance by far the mischief they occasion, which is only when 
the plants are young. They likewise retire from those places 
where they find no prey to be caught, when they have freed the 
field from vermin. It is therefore not wise entirely to destroy 
the moles. At any rate, their numbers may be lessened in 
flower-gardens and meadows ; yet even there they ought not to 
be extirpated, for the mole, with regard to the destruction of 
insects, may be regarded under ground in the same capacity as 
the sparrow is above ground.* Hoopoes, crows, and choughs eat 
many more." 
Summary of the foreyoiny Report. 
Pea crops subject to mildew. 
The early ones destroyed by millipedes in cold and wet seasons. 
Weevils named Curculio lineatus eat off the crops and notch 
the leaves, and likewise broad-beans. 
They first appear in March, and are most destructive in April. 
In the year 1844 they were universally distributed, and ate off 
the second arid third sowiny. 
Feediny in March from nine or ten in the morning for the rest 
of the day, and hidiny under clods at niyht. 
They stand feediyiy on the edges of the leaves, and fall down as 
if dead when appj'oached. 
Marrowfat and ea7'ly peas suffer rnost, lioy-peas the least, from 
their attacks. 
These iceevils attack the peas first, then the beans, and lastly 
the clover and lucern. 
Entire fields of lucern destroyed by them after sowiny two and 
three times. 
A field of lucern sown in July escaped their ravages. 
In September, J 841, they ate off more than half an acre of 
clover, at the headland of a barley lay, and continued their opera- 
tions in October. 
* Naturges. der Garten Ins., p. 165. 
