6 
NOTES OF OBSERVATIONS 
two past seasons in the Soutli-west of England. Mr. John Thomas, 
of Ridgeovean, Gulval, Cornwall, in a communication forwarded 
through Mr. D’Urban, of Exeter, notes a severe attack of these 
Otiorhynchus (sp. sulcatus and picipes). 
Weevils, in 1878, in his Raspberry gardens, which extend over two 
acres of land. The whole of the Canes were stripped of their shoots, 
and the crop consequently sacrificed, causing a loss of upwards of 
£100. In the present year, 1879, Mr. Thomas, on examination of his 
Raspberry hushes at night, found the brown Weevils gnawing through 
the succulent stems of the blossom-shoots, some consequently withering, 
some being cut right off. At the approach of daylight the Weevils went 
down to the ground and hid themselves just below the surface, or 
underneath stones. Hand-picking, strewing the ground with lime, and 
daubing the feet of the Canes with coal-tar, were tried as remedies, hut 
found to be either insufficient or useless. Mr. Thomas had then a 
number of wooden trays constructed, the inside of which was smeared 
all over with tar. The Raspberries are planted in clumps and bent 
into arches: after dark one man held a tray beneath an arch, another 
carrying a lantern gave the hush a smart tap, and the Weevils fell 
into the tray; the tar held them prisoners for a time; and after the 
tray had been placed under a hush or two the Weevils collected were 
killed by pouring boiling water over them. It was found necessaiy 
that the water should be quite boiling to effect this thoroughly. 
Mr. Thomas had thirty or forty persons at this work on his grounds, 
and each hush w r as treated three times in this way. An immense 
number of Weevils were caught, estimated at hundreds of thousands; 
and it was hoped by continuing this plan to avoid much future loss. 
' Raspberry grounds at Pleming, Polgoon, and Ponjou, were mentioned 
as similarly attacked; and in 1878 Raspberry plots in the large fruit 
gardens in Gulval and in part of Madron (also in Cornwall) were 
almost totally destroyed, at a loss of many hundred pounds. Mr. 
D’Urban mentions the presence of a considerable number of the 
