7 
that great benefit may be securely reckoned on by 
measures falling within the scope of regular cultivation, 
such as treatment of the ground calculated to preserve 
the surface moisture in it at sowing time—a fine tilth ; 
the addition of artificial manure to stimulate early 
growth ; good seed and a liberal supply of it; in short, 
all measures that will tend to cause rapid germination, 
and to run the plant on well and quickly. 
If we take the points to be attended to in regular 
order, one of the first is—Where does the general 
appearance of the Turnip Fly which begins the attack 
in spring come out from ? 
This may be from almost any kind of shelter. On 
the surface of fields, clods of earth, lumps of rough 
manure, stones, or even the hollow stalks of standing 
stubble may serve to protect it. At the sides of fields, 
heaps of stones and rubbish that are often gathered 
together and increased in size each year serve it admir¬ 
ably for winter shelter; also it has been seen making 
progress from a field border of neglected grass by the 
side of the kind of loose stone wall or bank known in 
Scotland as a “ dyke.” 
In such situations it is said by John Curtis, who in 
his day did so much for Agricultural Entomology, “The 
Fly or Flea-beetles may be seen on the first indications 
of spring, if the weather prove fine, sitting on walls in 
considerable numbers, or sunning themselves on dry 
banks and on clods of earth protected from the wind.” 
They also harbour amongst dead leaves, which accounts 
for Fly ravage sometimes beginning at the side of a field 
only divided by a hedge from woodland, and as they are 
likewise to be found in decayed stumps, or under loosened 
bark, an eye should be kept on accumulations of wood 
rubbish, as well as on other possible shelters. 
These are the starting-points from which the parent 
beetles come out; but as young Turnips are not to be 
found so early in the year, and the creatures need food, 
the first brunt of the attack is believed to fall on the 
weeds of the Cabbage kind that I have just named, and 
