376 
EXTRACTS—RURAL AFFAIRS. 
in newly sown fields, was by sweeping the surface with a gauze net on an irotl- 
hoop at the end of a strongish stick. They jump like fleas as soon as they 
see you. This insect or rather its grub, commences its attack on the turnip as 
soon as it is up, devouring the two cotyledons and the little heart, and some¬ 
times, in a few days, leaving the field as brown as it was on the day it was sown. 
Schemes without number have been tried to get rid of, or kill this little pest, 
wherever it has appeared. I have always observed the greatest quantity of grubs 
on very young plants; they are very various in size, and it is not before the 
plants are a fortnight or three weeks old, that the beetles appear in any quanti¬ 
ties. Yet there are some beetles observed from the first coming up of the plant. 
Now, I know from experience, that the turnip-fly feeds on wild mustard, and 
several other hedge plants, and therefore it is not improbable that when they 
smelled the fragrance of the fresh bursting cotyledons of their favorite food they 
would skip down from their spring habitations, the hedges, and make their at¬ 
tack. I first sowed some seed in a flower pot, with earth out of my garden; it 
produced the animal in abundance. Secondly, I inclosed the pot with paste¬ 
board and canvass, with the same success ; but there was still a possibility of the 
enemy getting in, as I had not made the cover sufficiently close. Thirdly, I 
made a light frame, about eight inches square, covering it with very fine silk 
gauze, carefully stopping the crevices of the door with wasted paper, and round 
the pot where the cover was fastened on it with putty, so that there was no pos¬ 
sibility of any thing coming to it from without. Yet this experiment was at¬ 
tended with the same success ; except that one point, that is, a negative point, 
was now proved, namely; that the fly did not come to the turnip from other 
plants, and this was a point gained. Fourthly, I baked the earth in a cast-iron 
pot over the fire, and used no other water to water the seed but such as I had 
boiled myself, applying it at the bottom of the pot in a common feeder. Then 
I exercised the same care, and took the same precautions as before. I did not 
take off the cover till the plants were of a considerable size, and I found them all 
a-hop with beetles. I had now made another step; having before found that 
the beetle did not come from other plants, it was now clear that it was not in the 
earth nor in the water. Fifthly, with a lens, I examined the seed, and found on 
it a number of white flattish substances; some of the seeds were without any, 
but there were generally one, two, three, four, and in one instance five on a sin¬ 
gle seed. These I concluded were eggs, and I thought the only way left me was 
to_attack them. It would have been easy enough to poke them off with a nee¬ 
dle, but I could not see how I was to employ a needle and a magnifying glass on 
a sack of turnip-seeds. I, therefore, made some pretty strong brine, and soaked 
the seed in it for 24 hours, then dried it thoroughly, and, with all the precautions 
I have mentioned, I sowed it again, and there was not a single fly, neither was 
there a single turnip injured. I tried again and again, and I found that without 
weakening the brine, if the seeds were only kept in it three hours, there were no 
beetles, but yet the seed came up as well as ever. I now practice this method 
with turnip-seed, cabbage-seed, and in fact with all the cruciform plants in com- 
mon cultivation, with very satisfactory success. The whole of these experiments 
were made on the Swedish turnip, which is generally more infested by these bee¬ 
tles than any of our older sorts.—Rusticus.— Ent. Mag. 
