60 
CORN. 
The specimens enclosed were maggots of some land of small two¬ 
winged fly, of pale yellow or whitish colour, up to a quarter of an inch 
in length, smaller towards the head-end, which was furnished with 
strong black or dark brown mouth-hooks, and truncate or roundedly 
truncate at the tail. 
The infested corn was injured by the maggots eating within and 
gnawing out the inner part of the shoots just above the bulb, and for 
some little way above. A small hole or slight tear was observable in 
some instances, this very possibly showing the spot where the maggot 
had made its way out when travelling. 
In reply to further enquiries Major Salmon favoured me with the 
following details, which I give at length, as similar attack is reported 
every year, and at present we have not got information enough to 
enable us to deal with it:— 
“1. The soil is marl, one of the last pieces of rising ground where 
the limestone hills fall down to the level of the low levels which 
extend from hereto the Severn; just above where the pasture-lands 
of the level proper begin. 
“ 2. Date of sowing of the Wheat, last November. 
“ 3. Manure : a rather heavy dose of farmyard manure was given 
to the land before the crop that preceded the Wheat. 
“ 4. Course of cultivation where this Wheat grows was, in 1883, 
fallow; 1884, Wheat; 1885, part Swedes, part Mangolds, part Vetches, 
part Potatoes; for the field is a large one. 
“It is remarkable that these maggots are not to be found in any 
part of this field, except where Swedes were grown last year ; and that 
the maggots are incomparably more numerous and destructive in 
those parts of the Swedes where the Swedes failed last year. Where 
the Swedes were the worst the Wheat-plant is the most affected ; and 
where there were other crops than Swedes last year the maggot is 
hardly to be found. 
“ It is also to be remarked that the tops of the ridges [i. e., where 
the soil is the hollowest from the plough having thrown up the two 
ridges together from opposite directions) are more affected than the 
ridges below these or in the bottoms. . . . The maggot seems new to 
the neighbourhood, but I have just heard that another of my tenants 
has found a few in some Wheat of his on land where he also had 
Swedes last year.” 
The following note sent from Croft Wainfleet, Lincolnshire, on 
May 7th, by Mr. John Searley, refers to similar attack;—“I enclose 
a sample of Wheat-stems eaten into by a small white worm. Wheat 
on land summer fallowed last year has suffered most in this district, 
where the soil is clay and mixed clay and sand reclaimed from 
the sea.” 
