THE WIRE WORM. 
649 
the bee go off the flower into a large cluster of grass. This excited 
my curiosity to see whether it went into the ground, and to my sur¬ 
prise, I found concealed under the grass a large toad, which was 
seated in a little hollow of the earth : I then felt quite satisfied, that 
the toad had devoured both the bees. About eight or ten days after¬ 
wards, in the evening of a very warm day, as I was standing to be¬ 
hold my bees return weary and heavy laden to their hives, (for 
when the sun is setting, they always appear weary and weakly,) I 
observed that several dropped short of the landing board, and settled 
on the leaves of a mallow, which grew beneath the mouth of the hive. 
While thinking when they would rise, I heard a loud smack, and 
saw a bee go from the edge of a leaf into the mouth of a large toad, 
which was seated under the mallow, at the distance of seven inches 
from the bee. I then hastened for my uncle to come and see, which 
he did, and we suffered the same toad to suck in three more, the dis¬ 
tance of one bee was nearly nine inches. The toad’s mouth was so 
far opened, that I could see the bees in the mouth, before it closed, 
and I believe that they were swallowed whole.” 
ARTICLE XVIII. 
THE DESTRUCTION OF THE WIRE WORM. 
BY M. 
At one of the Holkham meetings some years ago. Lord Albennarle 
stated, that he had accidentally discovered a remedy for the Wire 
Worm, hut since his speech was given in the Farmer s Journal for 
that year, I have never seen it noticed in any way whatever, I there¬ 
fore transcribe the particulars as detailed by his Lordship (from me¬ 
mory.) His Lordship informed the company, that he had drilled a 
field with wheat, intending at the same time to have deposited with 
all the seed, rape cake as manure, but more of the latter having be¬ 
ing used than had been calculated upon at the commencement of the 
work, part of the field was drilled without any manure, and that part 
only had suffered from the wire worm. Unwilling, however, to pro¬ 
mulgate this accidental discovery, without trying the experiment 
again, his Lordship, the following year had wheat drilled, and after¬ 
wards sowed with rape cake, in powder, across the field in an oblique 
direction, and the result was again as before stated, viz. only that 
part of the field was free from the wire worm, which was sown with 
rape cake. M.- 
