15 
total rainfall from the 1st of April until the 18th of May, 
inclusive, had only been one inch, and the subsequent 
fall up to the evening of the 26th of May was half an 
inch, which would be rapidly absorbed or evaporated in 
the warm and dry state of the weather and ground. On 
the night of the 26tli there was such heavy thunder-rain, 
amounting to 0*54 (or rather more than half an inch fall), 
that it prevented getting on the land to go on with the 
drilling (begun on that day and the previous one) until 
the 28th, and this later drilled part of the field which was 
sown after the heavy rain came well, and gave an excellent 
crop, although, as we have seen, the part sown before 
the heavy downpour was entirely cleared by the Fly. 
Seed put in on another plot of the farm on the 28th 
was also not touched by Fly, excelling a dozen or so 
of ridges next to one of the previously infested localities; 
and save one plot redrilled on badly infested land which 
was partly eaten, the rest of the plots sown at various 
dates, from the 4tli to the 27th of June, (when rainfall 
was commencing or was well established, or the ground 
well sodden by the thunder-rains of the 28th), were not 
touched b}^ “ Fly,” although in one instance the ground 
was reported to be in anything but good condition for 
Turnips, as it worked very rough. 
Similar effects of heavy rain in clearing off the Flea- 
beetles are also noted from Berwickshire, where it was 
observed that the insects had it all their own way until 
the heavy rainfall of the 16th and 17tli of June. The 
rains up to ten tons and fifteen tons per acre had no 
perceptible effect, and it was not until there was a fall 
equal to fifty-eight tons on the 16th, and forty-eight on 
the 17th, that the last of the Fly disappeared. 
The amounts here given correspond with what we have 
just been noticing at Boro-bridge. A fall of one inch of 
rain represents a fall of a weight of 101 tons per acre, and 
consequently the falls recorded of 48, 54 and 58 tons per 
acre would be respectively rather less and rather more 
than a half-inch fall. It saves some trouble in calculation, 
as rainfall is usually recorded by the inch and lOOtli of an 
