REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGIST AND BOTANIST 61 



SESSIONAL PAPER No. 16 



from getting the fullest returns for their labours from the bounteous crops of the past 

 few years. This subject is treated of more fully further on in this report. 



APIARY. 



There is little work to be done in the apiary during the period covered by this 

 report, as the bees are hibernating in their winter quarters. The work is still in the 

 hands o'f J\rr. John Fixter, who gives much information to visitors who come to the 

 Central Experimental Farm for advice concerning all matters conected with the keep- 

 ing of bees. 



NEW FISCAL YEAR. 



It is now almost twenty years since the Dominion Experimental Farms were 

 established, and as the change in the dates of the limits of the fiscal year will for the 

 future agree with the summer or working season for out-door investigation, the obser- 

 vations of the tcurrent season will be reported upon in the next report. For the above 

 reason the present time would seem a convenient occasion to look back over the work 

 which has been done in this Division since its organization. I therefore submit here- 

 with a short resume of what has been done since the Division was entrusted to me- on 

 July 1, 1887. Great progress has been made in the practical application of the sciences 

 cf entomology and botany to the requirements of the agriculturist and fruit-grower 

 in these two decades, and I trust that it may be considered by Canadians that the 

 results obtained in the Division of Entomology and Botany of the Dominion Experi- 

 mental Farms may compare favourably with those secured at similar institutions in 

 other parts of the world. 



I have the honour to be, sir, your obedient servant, 



JAMES FLETCHER, 



Entomologist and Botanist. 



DIVISION OF ENTOMOLOGY AND BOTANY. 



THE PROGRESS OF PRACTICAL ENTOMOLOGY IN CANADi 



The first record we have of a systematic effort in Canada to make known the 

 habits of injurious insacts was in 1856, when the Bureau of Agriculture for Upper 

 and Lower Canada offered three prizes of £40, £25 and £15 for the best essays on the 

 ' Origin, Nature and Habits, the History of the Progress from Time to Time, and the 

 Cause of the Progress of the Weevil, Hessian Fly, Midge and such other insects as 

 have made ravages on the wheat crops in Canada; also on such diseases as the wheat 

 crops have been subjected to, and on the best means of evading or guarding against 

 them.' Twenty-two essays were submitte<l, and the first prize was awarded to Prof. 

 H. Youle Hind, of Trinity College, Toronto, and the second to the Pev. George Hill, 

 of Markham, Ontario. These essays were published by the government and widely 

 distributed. 



Practicnl or applied ciituniulogy, as a recognized branch of agriiculture and horti- 

 culture, may be said only to have had its beginning in Canada in 18G5, when the Hon. 

 George Brown engaged the Rev. C. J. S. Bethune to write a series of articles on 

 insects for regular publication in The Canada Farmer, a paper publi.shed in Toronto. 

 This scries was continued for eight years, and gave a large amo\int of information 

 upon noxious and beneficial insects to the farmers and fruit growers of the countrj'. 

 In 1868 appeared the first number of the Canadian Entomologist, now so well known 



16—5 



