21 
crop) of such treatment as may in seasons of drought 
preserve the moisture that is in the soil, or is artifically 
brought there by farm manure, or again, the excellent 
effects that have been found to result in some instances 
from putting in seed with the water-drill. There is thus 
a supply of moisture ready to aid germination and first 
growth. The young plant may very likely be just as 
much gnawed by the “ Fly ” as the others, but the much 
greater rapidity of growth carries it well on, so that 
three or four holes gnawed in the leafage, that would be 
utter ruin to a young plant struggling out of a dry soil, 
are of little consequence to the plant of vigorous growth, 
and the losses of resowing are saved. Even taking the 
water-cart over the field (where a water supply was 
attainable) has been found to bring up a lagging crop. 
With regard to precise effect of watering on the germi¬ 
nating plant, I can state, from such experiment as I 
have been able to make, that at the end of a fortnight 
from their appearance above ground, the plants from 
a patch of Turnips which had been watered (in a season 
of drought) on either two or three evenings, weighed 
one quarter or rather more than the plants from pre¬ 
cisely the same measure of ground close by, and in 
exactly the same circumstances, excepting that they had 
not been watered. In case of fly-attack a quarter more 
of growth would often save the crop. 
The same principle of pushing on vigorous growth 
by all measures of good cultivation holds good with 
regard to attacks on more advanced leafage, as of the 
leaf-miners in the Celery or Beet, or the weevils whose 
presence we know of by the semi-circular scoops taken 
out of the Bean or Pea leaves. Say the maggot or 
beetle destroys a couple of inches of the leafage in a , 
day, if the plant growdh is only an inch and a half, it 
necessarily fails, but let the soil it is in, or extra dress¬ 
ings applied, be such as to push on a little more than the 
two inches, and it keeps its ground, or, as it is well said, 
“grows past.” 
Many of our crop-pests are only in their feeding stage 
