stances have been made by way of sprinkling or 
|| aspersion on the crops after the larve appeared ; 
but they have been only sometimes or limitedly 
effectual,—and have, at other times, been either 
quite useless or positively hurtful. A copious 
aspersion with sea-water, or a dusting of finely 
powdered salt at a time when the plants are wet 
with rain or with heavy dew, is probably the best, 
as it is the simplest, of these applications. The 
mere negative remedy of not hoeing or not thin- 
ning when the larvee appear is highly beneficial ; 
for if the crop be allowed to continue thick till 
the larve period cease, more food may be pre- 
sent than the larve can consume, and only the 
sound or the least injured plants may be allowed 
to stand at the subsequent thinning,—and if the 
soil be comparatively skinned and hard when 
the larvee fall, it will resist their efforts to bur- 
row in it for transformation, and may cause them 
to perish on the surface. Drawing a cart-rope 
|, over the crop to shake off the larve is some- 
times very effective, but cannot always be de- 
pended on. The brushing of the drills with live 
twigs, either vibratingly twice or thrice a-day 
during the whole larvee period so as to dislodge 
the larve from their feeding-hold of the plants, 
or switchingly a single time or two times so as 
to sweep the larvee aside into the spaces between 
the drills, has also been found effectual ; and in the 
latter case, the persons brushing must crush the 
larve with their feet as they pass on, and a man 
must closely follow with a scuffler to cover the 
whole spaces between the drills. By far the best 
method, however, is either hand-picking or the use 
of poultry, particularly young ducks. “ Hand- 
picking, it is true, is tedious, if not expensive, 
where the caterpillars are so numerous that as 
many as 16 score have been counted on one large 
plant ; but in such cases they should be brushed 
or whipped off into fruit-baskets or sieves ; 
for collecting them, which can be emptied into 
large covered vessels at the head of the field, 
containing some salt and water, or lime-water, 
| to prevent the caterpillars from crawling out.” 
| Even in fields where the larvee are by no means 
| abundant, five or six children, of from 6 to 10 
years of age, gathering only 8 hours a-day, will 
| poultry, they make sure and clean work; and 
| young ducks, especially, have been tried with 
| universal success, and are now the general fa- 
| useful propensity of eating up slugs and other 
small mischief-working animals. Hven when a 
field has, to some extent, been all but destroyed, 
the introduction of ducks has speedily changed 
its appearance. Yet the larve ought never to 
| be allowed to make any progress in devastation ; 
| and the farmer should be on the watch for them 
the instant they are hatched, and immediately 
set his ducks and poultry to do their duty. 
RR 
SAW-FLIES. 
otherwise pint or smaller pots are well adapted | 
| collect in a week about 45,000 or 50,000. As to| 
| vourites,—and they possess at the same time the 
15] 
on two farms in Norfolk, and saved all the 
crops entrusted to their care. When such large 
numbers are employed, they ought to be formed 
into detachments of not more than 100, and 
each must be attended by a boy or girl, to pre- 
cede them with a long light pole or willow rod, 
to brush the caterpillars off the leaves, as well as 
to drive the birds to water and to rest 3 or 4 
times a-day. After drinking, the ducks will 
often disgorge the caterpillars in great quanti- 
ties, and soon go to work again with whetted 
appetites. They must also be driven home at 
night, and put into a barn, where they ought to 
be fed with a little barley or other grain to keep 
them in health and vigour, otherwise so much 
living animal food disagrees with them, and 
causes purging. Old ducks do not work well, 
and are liable to attack the turnip-tops, and do 
as much harm as good; so that only young 
ducks should be selected of from 3 to 5 weeks 
old. Mr. Sells recommends that, after ducks and 
fowls had been made to fast a few hours, they 
should be tried with the larve, either alone or 
mixed with barley, by which means they would 
become acquainted with the insect to be sought 
for, and probably take a predilection for it.” 
The corn saw-fly, Cephus pygmceus, belongs 
not properly to the tribe Tenthredinetz, but 
forms a connecting link between it and the 
nearly allied tribe Siricide ; and it is commonly 
assigned to the latter tribe, and was called by 
Linneus Strex pygmeus. It abounds in Britain, 
and sometimes inflicts material injury upon 
wheat and rye crops; and yet it has hitherto 
been exceedingly little noticed in connexion with 
agricultural science. The fly has a shining 
black colour ; the head is rather large, and has 
prominent eyes, and three minute ocelli on the 
crown ; the antenne have 21 joints, and are 
tolerably long and slender, but slightly clavate ; 
the thorax is oval and not broader than the 
head ; the abdomen is rather long, slender, and 
slightly compressed, but has more of the two first 
of these characters in the male than in the fe- 
male; and the four wings are transparent and 
iridescent,—the superior ones with two marginal 
and four submarginal cells, the costa and stigma 
yellowish-brown, and all the nervures brown and 
slender. The larva is 6 lines long, a little thick- 
ened anteriorly, nearly cylindrical, of a yellowish 
milky white colour, tolerably fleshy, and more 
like a large maggot than a caterpillar; its head 
is rounded, corneous, and ferruginous, and has — 
minute four-jointed antenne ; its three thoracic 
segments have each two nipples beneath in place 
of feet; and its last segment is terminated by a 
small tubular appendage, which is protrudible 
like a telescope, and assists the animal in its 
progress within the interior of a culm. ‘The 
pupa is enclosed in a transparent cylindrical 
cocoon, about 5 lines long, rounded at the one 
end, and irregularly stopped up at the other. 
|| “ Nearly 400 ducks were at work at one time The corn saw-fly may be seen every year in |, 
yi , | 
