76 
TURNIP. 
were then employed scraping away round the roots and killing 
the grubs. 
At my suggestion Col. Coussmaker was good enough to try the 
effect of soft-soap and kerosine on the Dart or Turnip Moth caterpillars, 
and reported thereon as follows :— 
“ I have tried the soft-soap and kerosine on the Dart Moth cater¬ 
pillar, and found that when it touched them it killed them. I put 
some on to a clear piece of ground, poured a little on them, covered 
them over with earth, and in a couple of hours uncovered them : they 
were dead. Others I put in a similar place, covered them over with 
earth, and watered them with the preparation, but it had not soaked 
through enough, and they were none the worse. 
“ I also poured some round several plants. In a very few cases 
the grubs had worked up, and were lying dead, but in the majority of 
cases it had not affected them. I therefore continued the hand¬ 
picking over the whole four acres, and propose to send a woman round 
with the mixture in pails, and instruct her to give a couple of spoonfuls 
to each plant; it may keep them off in the future. Besides the Dart 
Moth we found several Yellow Underwing caterpillars. We have put 
some in dry salt, in grey lime, in sulphur, and in soot, and they have 
seemed none the worse. Gas-lime did kill them, but then that would 
not do for the plants.” 
A fortnight later (on August 21st), Col. Coussmaker reported 
further :—“ I have had the four acres of Swedes examined by men and 
women. They have killed great numbers of the larva of the Dart 
Moth and the Yellow Underwing, and a few common Wireworms. 
“ As the caterpillars do not always lie close to the roots, I found 
that the application of soft-soap and kerosine oil was not of much 
use. Those which it touched did die certainly, but when we began to 
scrape away the earth we found many several inches away quite 
unaffected.” 
From a farm at Clent, near Stourbridge, Worcestershire, Turnip 
Moth caterpillars were sent, on August 4th, as specimens of grubs 
which were devastating a field of Swedes, from one to five or six being 
found at each plant; and on August 22nd specimens of the same 
caterpillar were forwarded from Cornwell Manor, Chipping Norton, 
Oxon, where they were infesting White Turnips and Swedes, “ eating 
through the root and causing the plant to wither and gradually 
die off.” 
On August 12th specimens of the same (Turnip Moth) caterpillar 
were forwarded from the neighbourhood of Taunton, with the mention 
that they had “been this year very busily engaged in attacking the 
Mangolds and Swedes, and were frequently very injurious in that 
soil.” 
