7 
use, by keeping 1 these larvae from straying about and 
injuring every plant near them, and it is a key to 
open out a knowledge of much that is not yet traced 
fully, as to the cause of prevalence of wireworm after 
particular crops. 
If ground is open and porous, in consequence of the 
presence of roots, or other remains of the preceding 
crop, this state of things is just suitable to the wire- 
worm, but how we are to remedy this appears to me to 
be a matter that must vary according to the nature of 
the soil, and other circumstances. 
It is advised to break up old pastures in the autumn 
that the roots may decay, but on heavy land the turves 
may be so consolidated with roots, that this rotting may 
extend over a considerable length of time, and (ap¬ 
parently in consequence of this) we sometimes find 
wireworm much more troublesome in the second crop 
than in the one immediately following breaking up 
pasture. 
This matter, that is, the land being kept open by 
vegetable remains, bears on the question of wire worms 
being injurious after crops (like beans or field cabbage) 
of which the old stalks or some portion of the haulm 
are ploughed in, and gives an additional reason for 
prevalence after clover, and it leads further (though it 
appears very difficult to carry this point out practically) 
to whether the opinion may not be perfectly correct 
which is held by some of our agriculturists, that the 
use of farmyard manure, in the state in which it is 
often worked into the land, encourages wireworm. 
We know from entomological observation that the 
common wireworm, the larva of the common striped 
click beetle, Agriotes lineatus, has been found, and 
Sometimes in great numbers, in animal as well as 
vegetable manure, or vegetable earth, also that the 
wireworm of another kind is to be found in thoroughly 
decayed stable manure. Now, looking at the practical 
side, we find that in some places where fern leaves are 
collected for bedding the cattle, the wireworm has been 
observed as being numerous in the crop to which the 
manure has been applied. This is an extreme case, 
almost equivalent to dressing with decayed leaves, but 
other opinions are given pointing to attack following 
on the use of farm manure, and the way in which the 
trampled straw or vegetable matter in the litter would 
keep the land open so exactly corresponds with the 
mechanical effect of the roots, which have to be got rid 
of after breaking up land, that the matter is worth 
considering. 
In cases—which are not hard to find—where litter is 
carted out, and left to decay in large heaps, getting 
meanwhile as well covered with grass and weeds as if 
expressly arranged to attract the beetle for egg-laying, 
it is needless to point out what must be the consequences 
of literally dressing the ground with vireworms. 
From the information which we have gained of the 
common habits of the wireworm, and also of its customs 
when in emergency, there appear to be full reasons 
for its general prevalence, and amongst these one 
