752 
away all couch-grass and similar weeds, whose 
roots might afford sufficient sustenance to a large 
number of the wire-worms till the corn crop 
should be sown and strike root. See the article 
Fattow. Any pasture or old ley intended to be 
broken up for corn should be carefully examined ; 
and if any considerable proportion of wire-worms 
are found in the roots and stems of its plants, it 
should either be sown with some substances 
fatal to them at the time of breaking up, 
or subjected to a searching summer fallow 
previous to the sowing of it with corn. In 
breaking up any old pasture, where so ex- 
treme a precaution as either of these may be 
thought unnecessary, a breast-plough should be 
used to take off not more than 2 inches of the 
turf in the first instance, which will secure the 
crop from the attacks of the wire-worm, for an 
additional depth of only 2 inches has so encou- 
raged that pest that it has been known to de- 
stroy an entire field of wheat. This difference 
probably arises from the effects on the roots of 
the grass ; if the top of the turf only be pared 
off, the roots will die, whereas by going 4 inches 
deep they lie and vegetate, so that when it is 
afterwards all ploughed-in, the worms find the 
requisite pabulum, until the corn is forward 
enough to afford the wire-worms a more agree- 
able substitute. Dr. Dickson says that the de- 
structive attacks of insects on leys newly broken 
up “may in some measure be obviated by eating 
such lands very closely with sheep previous to 
their being broken up, as by such a method the 
ova of such insects may be much destroyed and 
their propagation prevented; and the treading 
the crop by sheep as well as the roller may 
likewise be beneficial; horses have also been 
turned in for the same purpose by some cul- 
tivators.” The folding of oxen and sheep 
upon infested fields is supposed by many to 
check the wire- worm by stopping their bur- 
rowing; but it seems more likely to prevent 
the beetles from being able to get out of the 
earth from their pupe cases, and to compel 
those which do effect their escape, in conse- 
quence of their finding no appropriate place for 
the deposition of their eggs, to depart for a more 
suitable locality. This operation might there- 
fore be most advantageously adopted early in 
the spring before the beetles hatch. An eminent 
cultivator preserved his turnips by harrowing 
and hard-rolling the land in March and April, 
but found this operation of no use later in the 
season. In another place, alluding to barley, 
Dr. Dickson also says, “If the plants suddenly 
change from a healthy green to a yellow cast, 
the use of the roller should be had recourse to, 
in order that the superficial parts of the soil, 
which are probably become too loose and porous, 
WIRE-WORM. 
manner, the roller should be of such a size, or so 
loaded, as to afford a pressure equal to the 
draught of three or four horses, which should be 
yoked double, in order to increase the effect by 
their treading. It has been suggested that if by 
this method the injury can be counteracted un- 
til such time as rain falls, there need not be any 
apprehension for the crop, as the plants will 
soon push forward in such a manner as to be- 
come too strong to be in danger from this in- 
sect.” The use of some of the recently-invented 
rollers, of the clod-crushing and soil-biting kind, 
particularly Crosskill’s, is still more eminently 
serviceable; and a top-dressing of lime before 
using the rollers, whether they be of the old 
kind or the new, materially adds to the effi- 
ciency. 
A good remedy for wire-worm may be found 
in a crop which, while taking entire possession 
of the soil, either affords no proper nourishment 
for the larvee or contains some principle which 
operates fatally on their life; so that, while ex- 
cluding every other plant on which they might 
feed, it shall exterminate them either by starva- 
tion or by poisoning. Two crops of this kind are 
woad and white mustard. On breaking up damp 
meadow and pasture land in Lincolnshire, the 
sowing of it with woad instead of corn has been 
found to exterminate wire-worms; and in the 
ordinary rotational management of arable land, 
the sowing of it with white mustard preparato- 
rily to corn, will destroy all the wire-worms by 
which the corn would otherwise be infested. 
“ White mustard-seed,” says Mr. Tallent of Little 
Houghton, “will protect the grain from the 
wire-worm, and this fact I have demonstrated 
perfectly to my own conviction. I first tried the 
experiment on half an acre, in the centre of a 
50-acre field of fallow, which was much subject 
to the wire-worm. The mustard-seed being car- 
ried, the whole field was fallowed for wheat, and 
the half-acre that had been previously cropped 
with mustard-seed was wholly exempt from the 
wire-worm ; the remainder of the field was much 
injured. Not only was the half-acre thus pre- 
served, but in the spring it was decidedly the 
most advanced part of the crop; and the pros- 
perous appearance which it presented caused me 
to repeat the experiment, by sowing three acres 
more of mustard-seed in the worst part of a field 
of 45 acres, also much infested with the wire- 
worm. The remainder of the field was sown 
with early frame pease, which, with the mustard- 
seed, were cleared in the same week. The land 
was then ploughed for wheat; and I had the 
pleasure of noticing these 3 acres to be quite 
free from the worm, and much superior in other 
respects to the other part of the field, which suf- 
fered greatly. Thus encouraged by these results, 
may be effectually pressed, and thereby rendered |,J sowed the next year a whole field of 42 acres, 
too close and compact to admit the worm to prey 
upon the tender roots of the young plants. That 
this effect may be produced in the most effectual 
which had never repaid me for nineteen years, 
in consequence of nearly every crop being de-. 
stroyed by the wire-worm ; and J am warranted 
- . — Seana laa SaLlereia Sosa pols tca bas 
- Sa eel SET WO UTERO E | 
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