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LETTERS ON ENTOMOLOGY. 17 
if stript of their green carpet ! but they would 
soon be deprived of it, if their despoilers were 
permitted to increase like some other insects. 
The larvae of the cockchafer (scarahceus melo- 
lonihd), which remain in this state four years, 
sometimes destroy whole acres of grass. They 
undermine the richest meadows, and loosen the 
turf so much, that it will roll up as if cut by a 
spade. These grubs did so much injury about 
seventy years ago to a poor farmer near Norwich, 
that the court of that city, out of compassion, 
allowed him £25 ; and the man and his servant 
declared they had gathered eighty bushels of the 
beetle. They do not confine themselves to grass, 
but eat also the roots of corn ; and it is to pick 
up this grub, of which swine are likewise very 
fond, that the rooks follow the plough. 
I suppose you will exclaim, What! is there 
no remedy or defence against all these little de- 
stroyers ? I fear there are not many very effectual 
ones ; but I was amused at the plan of Mr. Rod- 
well, of Barham Hall, whose wheat- fields were 
ravaged by a small gray slug. Having heard 
that turnips had been successfully employed to 
entice the slugs from wheat, he had the land 
strewed with sliced turnips, and the next morn- 
ing the poor little slugs were all taken in the 
