On  Dry  Warping  at  Hatfield  Chase. 
183 
sufficient  protection  will  be  rapidly  obtained  for  the  Cheviots  and 
hardy  Scotch  stock  ; and  that  gentleman  may,  with  reason,  pride 
himself  as  the  instrument  for  converting  4000  acres  of  barren 
peat  into  one  of  the  finest  grazing- farms  in  England;  and,  as  the 
practical  introducer  of  a system  already  applied  to  another  simi- 
lar-sized tract,  and  applicable  more  generally  than  at  present 
thought  of,  to  the  material  increase  of  the  agricultural  resources 
of  our  country.  As  to  Hatfield  Chase,  it  is  doubtful  whether  any 
equal  extent  can  be  found  in  the  celebrated  vales  mentioned  by 
Mr.  Pusey,  to  compete  in  produce  and  actual  fertility  with  this 
once  “ hopeless  quagmire.” 
X I . — Destruction  of  the  Wire - Worm . FromJ.  M.H.Charnock. 
To  the  Secretary. 
Dear  Sir, — Without  any  purpose  of  competing  for  the  prize 
offered  by  the  Society,  but  thinking  it  possible  at  the  same  time 
that  a brief  account  of  a very  simple  and  efficacious  plan  for  the 
destruction  of  the  wire-worm  may  either  tend  to  confirm  the  prac- 
tical value  of  some  of  the  Essays  that  may  be  written  on  the  sub- 
ject, or  by  its  publication  benefit  the  agricultural  community,  I 
beg  permission  to  lay  the  few  necessary  particulars  before  the 
Journal  Committee. 
That  I may  not  appear  to  assume  what,  in  this,  I have  no  title 
to,  viz.,  the  merit  either  in  theory  or  practice  of  the  plan,  I must 
state  that  it  was  communicated  to  me  a few  days  ago  by  my  rela- 
tion, Mr.  Charles  Charnock,  of  Holmfield  House,  who  himself 
received  it  from  Sir  William  Cooke.  Some  few  years  after  his 
entry  on  his  farm,  Mr.  C.  was  complaining,  in  the  presence  of 
Sir  William,  of  the  injury  his  crops  had  sustained  from  wire- 
worm,  and  lamenting  that  there  was  no  known  way  of  destroying 
them.  Sir  William  then  informed  him  that  he  had  heard  of  and 
adopted  a plan  which  had  proved  perfectly  effective;  and  which 
Mr.  C.  subsequently  followed  with  the  same  success. 
In  lieu  of  the  ordinary  top-dressing  with  rape-dust,  apply  to 
the  land,  and  plough  or  harrow  well  in,  5 cwt.  per  acre  of  rape- 
cake  crushed  into  lumps  of  about  the  size  of  half-inch  ground 
bones,  and  the  result  will  be,  that  the  wire-worms  will  congregate 
on  these  lumps  of  cake,  devouring  them  with  such  avidity  as  to 
become  glutted,  and  perish  either  from  repletion,  or  from  the 
peculiar  properties  of  the  rape,  or  from  the  combined  effects  of 
the  two.  Rape-efosf  will  not  answer  the  purpose,  because  it  pre- 
sents no  surface  upon  which  the  worms  can  fix  themselves,  and 
