BEAN-SEED BEETLE. 
21 
sown in Tenterden in the autumn of 1885. From that crop my seed 
was got, and sown at Benenden in 1886.” 
On March 2nd, Mr. F. W. Silvester (Recorder of Economic Ento¬ 
mology of the Herts Nat. Hist. Soc.), mentioned that he had been 
informed that the Bean-seed beetle was much more prevalent than 
usual in Buckinghamshire, and also on the lesser amount of land on 
which Beans are grown in Herts. 
On March 1st, I was favoured by the following notes from Mr. E. 
A. Fitch, of Maldon, Essex, which are of especial value, from 
Mr. Fitch being not only an agriculturist on a large scale, but also a 
well-known entomologist, and for some years Hon. Sec. of the Ento¬ 
mological Society of London. Mr. Fitch wrote :— “ Bruchiis rufi- 
manus has been most destructive this year: in Essex it is a most 
general complaint, and in my own case a most moderate computation 
of loss of weight alone of 2s. per quarter, would give £65 12s., i. e., 
164 acres x 4 quarters the acre x 2s. per quarter. Bruchi are always 
common with us, but seldom (if ever before in my recollection) to 
anything like the extent they have prevailed this year. I generally 
have heaps of Beans threshed in my granary for use (grinding for 
bullocks),—have over 100 quarters there now,—and every May and 
June they seem alive on the top, but we are used to that; this year, 
certainly, I believe I have as many Bruchus larvae as I have Beans, 
and the wild oats sticking in the holes is a perfect nuisance. I am a 
clean farmer, and, perhaps, ought not to acknowledge wild oats ; but 
they seem to a certain extent a necessity of our heavy land, and this 
year every oat has got into a Bruchus- hole, and nothing short of hand¬ 
picking would remedy the evil: this is almost impracticable. I 
know Bruchus rujimanus but too well.” 
The following note from Mr. Fitch, which he also permits me to 
use, gives a somewhat more detailed report:—“ The much-talked-and- 
written-of Hessian Fly has not been nearly as destructive in Essex 
last year (1887) as this small beetle. The complaint of holey or bug- 
eaten Beans comes from all over the country, and is by no means 
confined to the Bean-growing lands ; where Beans have been grown on 
our light land, they have suffered equally with those usually grown on 
the heavy land. I have myself delivered Winter Beans in other years 
weighing 19 stone 4 lbs. (67|- lbs. per bushel), and this year none of 
mine have quite weighed 18 stone (68 lbs. per bushel); and I hear from 
the corn merchants that nothing over 18 stone can be expected this 
year; a year in which condition, and consequently weight, is excep¬ 
tionally heavy, the loss being entirely due to the ravages of the 
Bruchus. Certainly, more than half the Beans I grew (produce of 
164 acres), produced a Bruchus , some two and more; money loss was 
created from the fact that all the wild oats (Arena fatua) seem to have 
