32 
CORN AND GRASS. 
“ The result of the experiment is that the rape-cake, instead of 
being poison to the Wireworms, evidently prolongs their destructive 
lifetime. How long they will continue to live and flourish in the 
rape-cake you sent me and water I can at present form no opinion.” 
On the 1st of May following (that is a little more than a year from 
the commencement of the experiment in 1883), Mr. Sturdy again 
examined the Wireworms, and reported :—“ They look fat and well, 
after feeding on nothing but the rape-cake you sent me for many 
months.” 
On Dec. 12th in the following year (1885) Mr. Sturdy reported the 
completion of his experiment as follows:—“ The Wireworms, about 
which I wrote you two or three years ago, are now all dead or changed 
into Click Beetles, but the last three of them lived as Wireworms 
entirely on the rape-cake you sent me until September.” 
We have thus an experiment extending continuously over a period 
of two years, and more than six months, of which the results stand as 
follows:— 
The Oats which were manured with the rape-cake grew much 
better, and were much less injured by Wireworms than the Oats grown 
without cake. 
The Wireworms throve on the cake, whether with the addition of 
small amount of Oats to their diet, or on the cake alone. 
It is observed that whilst those that had Oats turned to Click 
Beetles in due course, the development was checked in the case of 
those fed on cake alone. This in itself is a consequence by no means 
to be desired, but where there was mixed food attainable at pleasure 
would probably not take place ; but, relatively to the special point of 
bursting, nothing of the kind occurred during the whole course of the 
experiment. 
In my own observations, I experimented both with the common 
rape-cake and with what is called E. Indian or Currachee rape-cake, 
which is, in fact, mustard-cake ; but I supplied Mr. Sturdy with the 
latter, as I wished to know whether it might have any special effects, 
and we ascertained fully that with neither of the kinds did bursting 
follow the absolutely certain and regular feeding of the Wireworms on 
the cake. 
