DADDY LONGLEGS. 
27 
filled pots with earth, and, having placed grubs at a depth of within 
one inch of the surface, these pots were respectively covered with an 
amount of salt representing 1 ton per acre, lime 3 tons per acre, and 
nitrate of soda 2 cwt. per acre. These were watered with rain-water 
until the soil was well saturated, and “ the effect in salt and lime was 
not perceptible. The grubs treated with the nitrate of soda were very 
relaxed, soft, and helpless—“ will probably die ” ; and eight days after 
Mr. Lowe wrote that they still continued limp and helpless. 
With regard to amount of weight that could be borne by these 
grubs, Mr. Lowe placed some of them in a box of moderately damp 
soil, about an inch from the surface, and applied a pressure of 2£ cwt. 
for five minutes. The soil was pressed very close, and the grubs, on 
being exposed to the air , soon recovered. 
Repeating the experiment for the same length of time—that is, five 
minutes—with the lesser weight of 2 cwt., but leaving the grubs in the 
compressed soil , it was found that forty-eight hours afterwards none of 
them had moved, and Mr. Lowe considered they would not have 
moved, but died where they had been pressed down. 
The above experiments appear to me of much value in confirming 
or showing the method of action of two of the accepted methods of 
lessening the ravage of Daddy Longlegs grubs. 
The following note refers to a case in which the presence of the grubs of one 
of the mud-feeding kinds of Daddy Longlegs in drinking-water drew 
attention to the course of the supply-pipes having by mischance been so 
altered as to convey the water after its passage through a cattle pond 
instead of direct from the cistern. 
On the 28th of February Miss F. A. Gibbings wrote from Cranham, 
near Stroud, Gloucestershire :—“At present we are much troubled by 
large grubs in the drinking-water. I find the pipe that supplies us has 
communication with a pond to which the cattle have access. I enclose 
a specimen. They are most unpleasant creatures to discover, as we 
did three days since, in water poured out of the tea-kettle, and I may 
add all in the house have lately been ill.” 
On examination the grub proved to be the larva of a large kind of 
Tipula, but, what was of more importance, was the state of the water 
in which it was forwarded being so foul as quite to account for the 
continued illness of several members of the household. 
I therefore telegraphed to the sender to stop any more of the water 
being used for drinking purposes, and likewise took on myself to report 
on the subject to the Health Officer of the district. 
On investigation it appeared that the water-supply had originally 
been conveyed by pipes from a tank at same distance, and at some 
