8 
especial point is that the same general conditions which 
suit the growth of most of our crops suit also this 
destroyer of them. The good tilth by which we push 
on the first growth of the turnip crop is just suited for 
the travels of the wire worm, and though a firm soil 
may be desirable for wheat, yet the heavy pressure, 
sometimes described as making the land “ as firm as a 
road,” which is needed to keep the wireworm from 
drawing its glass-smooth surface through the soil, is 
quite beyond what is desirable for the good progress 
of the rootlets. Most of our crops thrive best in a 
condition of soil which admits of the action of the 
weather, such as sun-heat, and moisture, and some 
degree of air, and which, naturally or artificially, is 
free enough to allow the fibres of the roots to work 
their way forward, and here we have what the wire- 
worm delights in. It is for this reason that it is of 
such immense importance to prevent this pest getting 
a footing in arable land, for when once it is established, 
although the healthy state of the crop is one great 
means of carrying it over attack, yet we often have to 
bring about a special vigour of growth by special 
applications, entailing a cost over and above that of 
the regularly needed applications. Also for these 
dressings to act with certainty they should be applied 
according to knowledge of how their presence in the 
soil will affect that of the wireworm. 
I am particularly anxious to draw your attention to 
this point, for it too often happens that there is no idea, 
much less a well-founded knowledge, of what is best to 
do in case of attack, until the attack is causing such 
ruin to the crop that every hour is of importance. 
May I use a proverb which seems to me to be very 
appropriate, “ The rainy day is not the time for 
thatching”—and similarly, when the crop-pests are 
destroying the plant is not the right time for beginning 
to seek in all directions for how to destroy them—-but 
to do it. 
In these cases the applications which we usually need 
are not so much the common plant food as a concen¬ 
trated essence (so to call it) which we can procure at 
once, and which, by its rapid solution in rain or 
moisture, may be available for the plant at once ; and 
also, if possible, may at once make the locality so 
unpleasant to the grub or other insect that the crop 
may at least have a respite. These effects are more or 
less brought about by the application of mineral or 
chemical manures, and as preventives or remedies for 
wireworm attack there is a long list of them. 
We have many combinations of lime, applied as 
oarbonate, sulphide (gradually changed by atmospheric 
action to sulphate), phosphate, and superphosphate, 
used under the names of lime, gas lime, and alkali- 
waste, bone dust, dissolved bones, and the recent or 
fossil animal remains, which are commonly used under 
the general description of “ superphosphate.” We 
have sodium in two forms—nitrate of soda and chloride, 
or common salt; potash, under the name of kainite ; 
and phosphates mixed with ammonia in guano. Some 
