82 
CORN. 
infested in the same way as his own from which he had sent specimens. 
He mentioned that he had just sown Barley on his field, as the Wheat 
was all taken in some places. “ The preparation on my field was 
vetches, fed off with the sheep, and kept ploughed up close to them ; 
and the last week of July mustard was sown, and this also fed off 
with the sheep. The Wheat was planted the last week in November. 
As soon as I found it looking bad in February, I well rolled it, then 
gave it a good dressing of soot, and three-quarters of a cwt. of 
nitrate of soda per acre. I find this maggot more or less in all my 
Wheat but that after Beans, and, as far as I am able to tell you, all 
the farmers about here say the same.” “ I have a few places attacked 
in a field of Wheat planted after the middle of December.” “ Some 
Wheat I have, after Cabbage planted at Christmas, is quite free 
from them.” 
On May 15th specimens of the same kind of grub were sent by 
Mr. John Saul, from Wainfleet, Lincolnshire, with the note that they 
were “doing prodigious harm to the Wheat-plant growing in this 
neighbourhood.” 
On the following day (May 16th) Mr. Frederic Street, writing from 
Somersham Park, St. Ives, Hunts, forwarded me specimens of this 
same kind of Wheat-bulb maggot, some of which were then turning 
to chrysalids,' with the observation that he had been to March, in 
Cambridgeshire, where Mr. W. E. Bussell, of Granford, near March, 
had given them to him, with the information that “ hundreds of acres 
of Wheat were being eaten off by them in the Fens.” “ The Wheat- 
plant from which they were taken was growing on fen land after 
Early Bose Potatoes.” In this case the widespread area of attack 
was shown by the application for information being made by request 
of a large number of farmers who were suffering serious loss. 
On the same day (May 16th) Mr. A. L. Wells wrote from Warren 
Farm, Witton, near Birmingham, with specimens of Wheat with the 
maggot beginning to turn to chrysalis inside the stalk. He mentioned 
that some ten or twelve years before he had suffered very serious loss 
from similar attack, but had not done so again lately until this year. 
He also mentioned that one field, sown after Swedes, was “ an entire 
failure, every plant being destroyed for yards together.” In reply to 
my enquiries Mr. Wells further mentioned that the Wheat was sown 
on December 10th. “ Another field, sown after Potatoes, is very thin 
along one side where the potatoes were got up before they were ripe. 
The maggot nearly always takes the Wheat much worse after Swedes, 
and where the potatoes are got up before being ripe; it stands best 
after Mangolds.” 
At this date I received daily applications regarding the attack, from 
correspondents who, it will be seen, speak generally of the serious 
