WIRE WORM IN POTATO CROPS.
Some consternation has been canted by the discovery, among some potatoes growing at Opawa, cf a-speciea of wireworm, whose ravages are so serious as to have completely destroyed the crop, tho tebers being comp'etely riddled into fragments by the borii g of the worms. In the specimens received at this office, the lari pb are s x or seven eighths of an Ireh io length, and shot t one rix'eenth of «n inch lo thickness. They are of ada k red color, the shade doepetdn? with the are c f tho worm, and are of a very hard thell-likc-nature. Specimen infected inhere have been submitted to Mr W. ti. Ivey, Director of the t-cbo 1«f Attricu - tore, Liucolo, and to Mr W de G. Reeves, officer in'charge of the Department of Agriculture, and it appears that t' is is not a now pest, but has been known for several years by potato-growers, especial y on newly-broken-np peaiy soils, or after Tory old pasture, I» hu been k*-own t. •zht for four or five years in the same toils;- but bss not spread beyond the localities whore It was generated I- has, however, ia some Instances a ticket wheat, and in England it is a fr-q sent custom to plant potatoes or oa<rots t • attract ’the insects, the crop with the luvie being afterwards destroyed as far as possible and tho ge m extern ioat d by manurglng tho land with gss limi, Common salt is mentioned as a cure m neavy lands. The Department of tore i as given insrnctiona for an invest! gation into the matter forthwith It is stated that tha infee’ed crop at °rawa Was grown from impor'e! seed Time s
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Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1445, 31 December 1886, Page 3
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289WIRE WORM IN POTATO CROPS. Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1445, 31 December 1886, Page 3
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