52 
CORN AND GRASS. 
England, Scotland, and Ireland I liave rarely seen it required.— 
(Malcolm Dunn, Dalkeith, N.B.) 
Where Wire worms abound the Rooks, Plovers of different kinds, 
Partridges, and other birds feast, and are the best friends to the 
farmer.—(J. Forrester, for the Right Hon. Viscount Portman, Bryan- 
ston, Blandford.) 
A good hoeing will help by disturbing the Wireworms and bringing 
them to the top, when Rooks will greedily search for them and devour 
them.—(Robert L. Pudney, Halstead, Essex.) 
The remedies I know are the ploughing in of Mustard, deep winter 
ploughing, and repeated stirrings of the land, but the best remedy is 
the one that Nature has given us in the assistance of Rooks and 
Starlings. I strictly preserve birds, and now I have no Wireworm.— 
(C. R. Colville, Lullington, Burton-on-Trent.) 
Many Wireworms will be found early in the morning, say about 
four o’clock, and Crows are most serviceable in picking up these 
larvte, especially in the mornings, when they will be found working 
hard in infested fields.—(Robert Coupar, Scone, N.B.) 
If we go to the fields at daybreak at the beginning of May we may 
observe the Rooks beating singly over every yard of ground, nothing 
appearing to escape their notice. These Rooks are providing for their 
young, and if the pouch of oue of these birds is opened it will be 
found to contain a dozen sprouted barleycorns, a few dead dry earth 
worms, and upwards of thirty Click Beetles, soft and pulpy, which 
struggled up during the previous night from their chrysalids a few 
inches below ground. After six o’clock, the time when the horses go 
to work, a stream of Rooks may be seen coming and going, eagerly 
picking up Wireworms and Grubs in the furrows behind the light 
ploughs. Each Rook does not take fewer than fifty Wireworms 
during the day of eight hours, whilst the horses are at work, and 
later on (at the dusk hour) if the pouch of the latest Rook flying home 
be examined it will be found to be filled with Beetles, Caterpillars, and 
a little corn.*—(Ralph Lowe, Sleaford, Lincolnshire.) 
Rooks Sometimes Destructive to the Crops. 
Rooks will soon tell you where Wireworms are. I have often seen 
acres entirely cleared of good strong plants of roots by being pulled up 
by the Rook in search of his favourite food. Nothing requires greater 
attention on the farm than keeping Rooks off the roots when first 
singled out, where there is Wireworm among them, as the cure is 
often worse than the disease.—(T. R. Hulbert, North Cerney.) 
* The observation as to the pouch of the Rook being filled with Beetles as it 
flies home “ at the dusk hour” is particularly deserving of attention, as it is not 
generally known the Click Beetle may then be found in considerable numbers on the 
grass.—(E d.) 
