OF INJUKIOUS INSECTS. 
7 
and Mr. J. Russell also mentions the Wire worm as not as numerous 
as usual at Poltallock, Argyllshire. In many places, however, they 
have been injurious, and in garden treatment the remedy of trapping 
in pieces of Carrot or Potato has been found to succeed well. Mr. R. 
Seivice mentions that at Maxwelltown, Dumfries, the Wireworms are 
so numerous that some garden flowers can scarcely be grown owing to 
their ravages, and he mentions that pieces of cut Potato buried as 
traps, and examined every morning, are very effective means of 
destiuction. Mr. Malcolm Dunn mentions the most simple and 
generally successful remedy being pieces of Carrots or Potatoes fixed 
on the end of a short stick, and inserted in the ground where the 
insects abound. Examined daily, the insects are found sticking to 
them, and are picked off and destroyed, the traps being again inserted 
in the soil, and renewed till the Wireworms are all caught or dis¬ 
appear. In fields where Wireworm abounds, dressing with pulverised 
gas lime, or a good rolling with a heavy “ Crosskill ” roller, is 
effective in checking their attacks. Mr. Boyd, writing from the 
gaidens, Callendar Park, Falkirk, where the Agviotes linecitus has been 
numerous, observes : “I commenced at once with Carrots and 
Potatoes inserted in the border two feet apart, and six inches deep ; I 
gathered the insects every other day, getting large quantities at first, 
and continued all summer, and now at the present date there are very 
few left. This was early in October; at the beginning of the 
operations as many as twenty-seven were to be found at the root of 
one plant. Mr. M‘Kinlay mentions that 400 to 500 a day of these 
Wireworms which were infesting a Vine border near Edinburgh were 
taken by means of Potatoes and Carrots laid for them. Mr. James 
Kay, writing from the Bute estates, Rothesay, gives an account of a 
method found successful in stopping attack of Wireworms on a field 
of Turnips. In 1876 four acres of orchard ground which had been 
laid down four years previously in grass was trenched, manured with 
partly crushed and partly dissolved bones, and sown with Yellow 
Aberdeen Turnips. The crop looked well until after thinning, when 
it appeared to come to a complete standstill, and on examination the 
greater portion was found to be much injured by the Wireworm near 
to the surface of the ground. Asa preventive from complete destruc¬ 
tion, Mr. Kay procured a quantity of fine dry sand, and moistened it 
with just sufficient paraffin for it not to clog, but run freely in the 
hand. Several women and boys were set to strew this slightly “ in 
spoonfuls” along the centre of the drills, so as to fall directly above 
the roots of the plants, the whole crop being gone over in one day, 
and the effect was thoroughly satisfactory. The attack was stopped, 
and in a few days the plants recovered their vigour, and resulted in a 
splendid crop. Mr. Long notes that on his land at Henlow, Hertford- 
