INSECTS INJURIOUS TO THE TURNIP CROPS. 
5 
Germany, Sweden, and other parts of the Continent. In this 
country, says Mr. Curtis, it is probable that every bank and 
meadow harbours them to a greater or less extent. They have 
been found on grass lands which had not been ploughed for 
many years, and where there were no turnips within half a 
mile. The strength of this little animal's jaws may be proved 
by the fact that some specimens which Mr. Curtis put in 
a quill with a cork stopper, “ soon reduced the inside of the 
cork stopper to powder." The beetles hybernate during the 
winter, hiding in the bark of trees, under stones and leaves, 
ready to be called into active life by the first sunny days in the 
early part of the year. Although, as a rule, the turnips suffer 
only from the depredations of this insect while they are in the 
smooth cotyledonous leaves, yet instances are on record, it is 
said, of the autumnal crops having been destroyed by these 
enemies. Cruciferous plants form the principal food of the 
turnip-beetle ; the white turnip seems to be preferred to the 
Swede ; charlock or kedlock is a very favourite diet. A farmer 
told me the other day that he attributed the immunity of his 
Swedes from the attacks of this insect, in 1865, to the presence 
of a quantity of charlock amongst the turnips, the fly choosing 
this latter plant in preference to the turnip. Various recommen- 
dations to get rid of this scourge have from time to time been 
suggested, but for the most part they are unsuccessful. One 
method was to soak the turnip- seed in brine, brimstone, milk, 
and other solutions. This plan is as old as Columella, who 
recommends a solution of soot. I may here remark that the' 
turnip-beetle, either Haltica nemorum or other species of the 
genus, was known to the Greeks in the time of Theophrastus 
under the name of Psylla (\pvXXa), The Roman agriculturists 
were well aware of the injury this little insect caused to plants 
of the cabbage family. 
“ Whoever will sow,” says Columella, “ rapa and napus in summer must 
take care lest by reason of the drought, the flea ( pulex ) consume the tender 
leaves just as they come out ; in order to prevent this let him collect the dust 
from the ceilings, or the soot that adheres to the roofs above the fireplaces, 
and mix this with the seed, sprinkling water upon it the day before sowing, 
in order that the seed, by being steeped, may imbibe the liquid ; the follow- 
ing day you may sow. Certain ancient authors, as Democritus, recommend 
the seeds to be steeped in the juice of the herb sedum , as a remedy against 
the attacks of these creatures, which from experience I have found to be 
useful ; but because this plant is not readily procurable, I generally use soot 
and dust, and have saved my plants from injury.” — (Columella, de Re, Rust., 
xi., iii., 60 , 61 .) 
Modern agriculturists have made use of soot and dust, tkougli 
not exactly in the way directed by the Roman writer. 
“ We learn that Mr. Dickson has perfectly succeeded in saving his crop by a 
