164 



Nitrate of soda is also recommended by some growers. This is applied as a 

 surface dressing in June and is washed in by the spring rains. 



In my Report for 1887, I related the success attending the use of this fertilizer 

 by Mr. H. Brodie, of Montreal. His method of using it was to place about a table- 

 spoonful of nitrate of soda around each plant. One row of plants not treated with 

 nitrate of soda was destroyed whilst the others were untouched. 



In Miss Ormerod's New Manual of Injurious Insects the following appears 

 at p. 27 :~ 



" When attack is present, heavy showers of rain, on land previously dressed 

 with nitrate of soda round the plants, and superphosphate, stoj^ped the spread of 

 the maggots. Also, the application of lime-water has been found very serviceable. 

 The plan adopted was soaking hot-lime for twenty-four hours in water, and watering 

 with this, when clear, in the afternoon. This was found to destroy the maggot. — 

 (J. Mc K.) " 



Another active remedy which has been used with good effect is a Kerosene 

 Emulsion applied beneath the surface as recommended above for the Hellebore 

 decoction. Sand saturated with coal oil, placed round the base of the stems 

 immediately after the plants are set out is a good preventive ; but must be repeated 

 every week until the middle of July. 



In addition to all that man can do to keep down the numbers of this trouble- 

 some insect, he has a most potent ally in the shape of a small beetle belonging to the 

 StaphylinidfB or Rove Beetles. This little friend which is named Aleochara Antho- 

 myice, Sprague, is a small black elongated beetle, which was found in considerable 

 numbers running about amongst the cabbages and burrowing down beneath the soil 

 in search of the maggots. Not only is it extremely active in preying upon the mag- 

 gots, but it is also a true internal parasite feeding inside them and completing its 

 transformations inside the pupa case. In the hope of rearing this beetle, 16 larvae 

 and pupae were taken from the root of a cabbage, where the perfect beetle had been 

 seen and were enclosed in a breeding jar. From these were reared 9 beetles and 

 one fly, the remainder of the pupae dried up without coming to maturity. In some 

 of them, however, the immature beetles were found when the cases were broken. 

 When the beetle eats its way out of the pupa-case it gnaws a ragged hole at one end 

 quite difterent from that made by the emergence of the fly. A description of the 

 habits of this little beetle is given with a figure in Prof. Lintner's first report on the 

 Insects of New York, p. 188, and mention is made of it in Prof. Riley's 1884 Report. 

 The full description by Mr. Philip S. Sprague is to be found in the American Ento- 

 mologist, Vol. II, p. 370. It is a small, slender, black beetle, about ^ of an inch in 

 length, covered all over with short silky hairs. The most notable featui-es, when it 

 is examined under a magnifying glass, are that the whole body is covered with hairs 

 and small punctures, these are lests numerous on the head, thorax, and first four 

 joints of the antennae, which thereby look blacker than the rest of the insect. The 

 wing cases in some specimens have a greenish-coppery sheen. The feet are brown- 

 ish which colour gradually deepens into black on the shanks or tibiae. The antennae 

 after the fourth joint are so densely covered with short hairs as to have a grey 

 appearance. I have generally been able to find a few of these beetles in beds of cab- 

 bages infested by the Cabbage Maggot and upon one occasion bred a specimen from 

 the Onion Maggot. It is probable that other species of the genus are also parasites, 

 but nothing definite is known of their habits. Mr. W H. Harrington has shown me spe- 

 cimens of A. lata, which he found in a breeding jar containing the cocoons of saw-flies. 

 It did not occur to him at that time that they might be parasites, and the fact was 

 merely recorded in his notes without any special examination being made of the 

 cocoons. 



A new attack of a serious nature by an Anthomyian larva has come under my 

 notice during the present winter. 



I have found full-grown larvae mining in the mid-ribs and also boring through 

 the heads of winter cabbage. These have not so far been bred to maturity, but from 

 the larvae and pupae, I am unable to distinguish them from the Cabbage Maggot and 



