28 
CORN AND GRASS. 
But whichever of these common kinds they may have been of, the 
above figure gives a good idea of the cylindrical, legless, tough, and 
grey and slaty grubs ; and the treatment by which their ravages may 
be lessened is similar for them all. 
It has long been known that the Flies choose damp spots, and 
shelter in grass or clover for laying, and in the following observations 
attack is again noted on marsh soil, on wet land, and especially after 
Clover. 
The attack is noticed as having been least injurious where the land 
was well cultivated; and, where severe injury was going on, the same 
kind of application of fertilising dressings, which was found quite 
successful in carrying Oats through bad attack in 1882, has proved 
again successful. For special treatment in bad attack on large breadths 
of Cabbage land it has been found that hand-picking answered at a 
paying rate. 
I wish also especially to draw attention to the observation of Daddy 
Longlegs grubs being found in fold-yard manure. The first of the 
following notes refer more especially to the smaller kind of Daddy 
Longlegs :— 
At the end of April I received a communication from King’s 
Heath, near Birmingham, regarding a grub then making great havoc 
in a large field of Spring Wheat after Beans, and Beans after Wheat. 
This grub, on examination, proved to be of one of the smaller kinds 
of Daddy Longlegs, probably the yellow-spotted kind (Tipula macu¬ 
losa), which is, if possible, even more destructive than the common 
and somewhat larger kind. The grub was reported to be about one 
inch below the surface, and the heaviest roll used not to have the 
slightest effect upon it. 
A little later Mr. E. A. Fitch wrote me from Maldon as follows :— 
“You ask about Tipula larvse in Essex. They are very bad; 
almost all the early Peas are ploughed up, and much of the Wheat 
has suffered from ‘ black grub,’ which appears to he the general local 
name for these pests. The pretty kind, with a lot of yellow on the 
thorax, is, I believe, the chief culprit. 
“I had eleven acres of White Sickle Peas, sown in November 
(Nov. 20th), which looked remarkably well until the March severe 
weather set in ; then the grub attacked them, and they wasted terribly 
every day, until hardly a quarter plant was left. Hoeing did not 
mend matters, so at the end of March I again drilled the same Peas 
without ploughing the others up. After rolling and twice harrowing 
these came up a full plant, but were soon attacked, and there is not 
near half a plant of the two crops. The early ones are podding (a 
few almost fit to pick), the later are not in bloom, so altogether the 
field looks like coming to very little. 
