Important to Farmers

Feilding Star, 15 June 1893, Page 2

Important to Farmers

RAVAGES OF THE GRASS 3RUB. Siß,~ln a late issue yon published an article relating to the white grub which is at the present time tnakiug such havoc with permanent pastures in this district. Haying been engaged in ploughing nearly forty acres of land " badly infested with this devastating insect, and also haying taken considerable notice of the different stages of the grub, this article may prove interesting to a numbor of your different reuderc. Iv February and March last 1 broke up and sowed in turnips a considerable area of lund for Mr Godfrey, of Beaconsfield, the character of the coil bemg a light loam with a heary sole of cocksfoot, hardly an acre of say 35 acres being free from the grub and to such au extent was the rayages of the insect car* ried that you could take hold of the grass on the edge of the furrow and strip it off to the length of seven or eight feet and two or three feet broad (" The same ai a person would lift a carpet,") the ground underneath being covered with the grub. Ou one occasion Messrs F, E. Pickering, and Gordon Hare being present, marked out and counted the grubs iv a foot square the number being 108. By cons taut observation I am of opinion that there are three distinct phases of the grub before it arrives at maturity, that is before it turns to the chrysalis form with this I send you three specimens which I imagine bears out my argument and bj which you well see the three distinct sizes rangiug from an Bth of an inch to l£ inches in length although at the time of ploughing I found but few of the latter. It seems to me that the grub lives two if not three years in the ground before it turns into the beetle or cockchafer, and my season for the supposition are as follows :— ln September last I ploughed a portion of the same land, 3 or 4 acres, which to all appearances was in fallow, the grub having stripped it completely of all grass. By following the furrow you could tee them iv thousands, in two distinct sizes. . On ploughing the same land again in Maroh thoy were not nearly so thick, but the absence of the very small grub leads me to believe in what I have written about. As I have mentioned before I sowed nearly all the land with turnips with the exception of a few acres of rape. The grub bas now attacked the turnips eating through the tap roor, (I send you specimen,) causing the leaves of the turnips to turn dark purple for some days before dying. You can plainly follow the track of the grub by the patches attacked all over the land. The turnips as you will see are from the size of an egg upwards. The insect also attacks the rape when young, but do not appear to do it any injury now. The peculiar thing about them is that although a good crop of turnips followed tbe September ploughing they did not destroy them in the least. Already the insect is appearing in this vicinity on the hills and m places where it would be impossible to plough, and it seems piobable that in a few years it will develop to such an extent, if not checked by somo means or other, that it well prove one of the greatest curses that farmers have to contend with. In conclusion I observe all kinds of poultry deyour the grub ravenously as well as pheasants, sparrows, tit-larks, and the green finch ; pigs also distroy them, and seem to thrive amazingly on them. R.S.F. Beaconsfield, June 10th.