22 
CORN AND GRASS. 
“ The soil is, part of it a heavy loam, but silty on the high portions 
of fields. 
“ For the future I shall, if I can spare the feed, plough up Clover 
leys just before harvest, and work them about. 
“I should think that if the leys could be broken up, say early in 
August, it might prevent the Daddy Longlegs depositing its eggs, as I 
did not notice the grass-lands swarming with the flies till the latter 
end of August and September.” 
On the 10th of May Mr. Scott wrote further :—“ My wheat has 
improved in colour, but is still thinned by the grubs. 
“ I have just hand- and liorse-lioed it, which has disturbed it, and 
cut a many in pieces. I have a few Spanish fowls near the field, and I 
notice that they pick up some food after the hoers, and think it may 
be the grub. 
“ Some six or eight weeks ago I saw large flocks of Starlings on 
the field plagued with the grub, but have not noticed any on very 
recently.” 
On the 24th of May the Oats, after two years’ seeds, were just 
finished being hand-hoed, and, owing to the land setting hard, and the 
sods making it hoe badly, it cost 5s. 4d. per acre. 
Boys were employed to pick up grubs for two days in the low 
parts of fields, where they were most abundant, and picked up about 
eight pints. Some grubs were still to be found, but since the weather 
had been dry and cool the grub was not quite so near the surface. 
From the above observations it will be seen the grub was destructive, 
and necessitating expense to keep it down from December to the end 
of May ; and the result Mr. Scott noted on Oct. 20th as follows :— 
“ The grub continued to work at my Wheat and Oats till about the 
beginning of June. I have just thrashed a portion of the grub-worked 
wheat-field, which has yielded at the rate of 4£ qrs. to the acre, but I 
had to patch up with April wheat. The crop was the heaviest where 
I had sown soot at the rate of 5 or 6 cwt. per acre. Owing to the low 
price of wheat I do not suppose it will pay for the top-dressings and 
hand labour.” 
With regard to prevalence of grub-attack in the neighbourhood of 
Spalding, Mr. Scott reported that a farmer at Kirton, about five miles 
off, had a fourteen-acre field of Oats, and likewise his Beans, quite 
destroyed by this pest, and many farmers suffered more or less in that 
part of Lincolnshire, where the land is heavy. 
The following notes refer to attack on the peaty soil near Mans¬ 
field, Nottinghamshire, and to the presence of “grub” in wet land; 
likewise to grubs being found in rotten turf; and to turfs and clods 
being favourite sheltering places in fields. 
On May 15tli Mr. Fred. Turner, writing from Mansfield Woodliouse, 
