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similar to that done by the Red-thighed Locust in biting off the flowers of oats. 

 During the past season, with the assistance of Mr, W. A. Hale, of Sherbrooke, I 

 have succeeded in breeding several of the beetles from the buds, and find that an egg 

 is deposited in each at the time it is cut off from the flower-stem. In February, 1889, 

 Mr. Hale wrote to me as follows, giving the true life-history : " For several years I 

 have been suffering from the ravages of some sort of insect which attacks the buds 

 of all the staminate varieties of strawberries ; a small puncture is made through an 

 unopened sepal of the calyx, and an egg is deposited. The stalk is then partially 

 or entirely cut through, and in about ten days the grub makes its appearance, and 

 feeds upon the pollen in the still unopened bud. It soon assumes the chrysalid 

 form. Though I was successful last summer in hatching out a number of the grubs, 

 I never carried them beyond the chrysalis state. A remarkable thing about this 

 depredator is its cleverness in selecting only those varieties which produce pollen. 

 In a large field of strawberries, in which 80 per cent, of the rows were pistillate 

 varieties, not a single bud was touched, while the remaining rows of strawberries 

 were almost denuded of buds, the cutting process extending over a period of about 

 ten days. Tl;iis same trouble was noticed in Staten Island and in Hamilton, Ont., in 

 1886, but the insect was said to destroy the buds from mere wantonness, which was 

 an error. I tried equal pai-ts of air-slaked lime and sifted hardwood ashes ; also 

 ammonia in the form of fermenting hen manure, put on between the rows, powerful 

 enough to wither the foliage, but with little or no effect * * * One of our most 

 profitable and growing bi-anches of horticulture is being threatened, unless some 

 preventive can be suggested." 



Mr. Hale again writes on 18th June, 1890 : " I am sending you a number of 

 strawberry buds, cut oft' by some insect, in each of which you will doubtless find an 

 egg. Whatever the depredator is, she is knowing enough to attack only the bisexual 

 varieties, so that the larva is ensured pollen for its sustenance. So marked is this, 

 that I have seen a single staminate plant in a bed of thousands of the Crescent (pistil- 

 late) entirely stripped of its buds, while not a single injuied plant could be found 

 amongst the Crescents. Last year, I was comparatively free from the pest, but in 

 1888 I suffered heavy loss. " 



On 31st December, 1890, Mr. Hale writes again : " I am sorry that I am not able 

 to report any very marked success in coping with the strawberry weevil. Heavy 

 dressings of air-slaked lime and wood ashes, twice applied while the dew was on, 

 gave no appreciable results. 'Dissolved bone ', possessing a very strong odour, checked 

 to a certain extent the depredations, but left upon the hulls its pungent smell, even 

 perceptible when the fruit was ripe, and this last fact has deterred me from making 

 any experimental applications of Paris green or London purple." 



Upon examining the buds sent by Mr. Hale, 18th June, I fouud that a hole had 

 been bored through the calyx and closed corolla, and one small white egg pushed in 

 to the base of the anthers. The buds were enclosed in a glass jar upon some slightly 

 moistened earth. The beetles began to emerge about a month later. The larvae 

 had entirely consumed the contents of most of the buds, and had then made a thin 

 cocoon of the agglutinated frass, inside the calyx which retained its shape. This 

 cocoon is very similar to that of Anthonomus rubidus, which breeds inside the fruit of 

 white currants, which ripen prematurelj^ and generally drop from the bunches just 

 before the main crop changes colour. I have never observed injury to strawberries 

 at Ottawa, either upon wild or cultivated varieties, although the perfect beetle is 

 frequently taken on bushes and low shrubbery during the month of June. 



Remedies. — A practical remedy for this insect is diflicult to devise. I had 

 suggested spraying the vines with a weak mixture of Paris green and water (1 lb. 

 to 300 gallons), but Mr. Hale was unwilling to try it. Kerosene emulsion would 

 probably kill all the beetles upon the vines at the time, and might deter others from 

 coming for a short time. What is required is something which will keep the weevils 

 away until the buds are open, but will not keep away the fruit-growers' friends, 

 the bees and other flying insects, after the flowers are expanded. The beetle does 

 not lay its eggs in the flowers after they have opened. I have buggested the plan, 



