16 
inch, to note that—as an inch fall represents 101 tons per 
acre—for general rough estimate 100th of an inch nearly 
corresponds with one ton of rainfall. 
A downpour of rain that is heavy as well as large in 
amount, does good in dry weather, partly by setting up 
supplies of moisture in the ground that help germination, 
and also render the manure or food in the ground avail¬ 
able to the young plant, and partly by fairly beating the 
Fly off the leaves, and checking its activity for a while. 
"When Flea-heetles are wet they cannot leap, from their 
leaping legs being clogged with moisture. I have watched 
infested Turnips at the beginning of a gentle rain, and as 
the moisture gathered together the Flea-beetles gradually 
lost their power of skipping away; and in the case of a 
heavy fall, many of those that were beaten into the soaked 
ground would take some time before they could put 
themselves to rights again to continue their attack. 
The point of securing the benefit of rainfall was much 
brought forward last year, and the advice was given from 
various places to sow before or after rain—“ not in the 
dry.” Of course where land is clogged with wet it would 
he wrong to work it for seed whilst in that state. 
How far artificial application of moisture with the seed 
(or after sowing) can be brought to bear, is a point that 
w r e need to know more about. When the season is 
moderately damp the use of the water-drill has been 
found to do much good ; on the other hand, in dry 
seasons it has been found to do harm, by just starting 
the plant into a growth that there was no further supply 
of moisture in the dry ground to carry on. 
The use of the water-cart has been found to bring up 
a lagging crop, and by experiment it has been shown 
that, measure for measure, a plot of young Turnips 
watered on two or three evenings, when germinating, 
will weigh one quarter more at the end of a fortnight 
than that which was unwatered, but at present, except 
occasionally or in garden cultivation, there does not 
seem any way of applying irrigation over head at a 
paying rate to the field crop. 
