REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGIST AND BOTANIST. 191 



caterpillar very slightly changed. It was, of course, shorter, and with the legs much 

 drawn in, but otherwise not at all like a chrysalis. " 



The following letter is from a large buyer of seed pease, and gives reliable inform- 

 ation as to the importance of finding a remedy as soon as possible for this serious pest : 



"December 31, 1894. — Replying to your valued favour of 22nd December, the dam- 

 age done to the pea crop in this vicinity by the Pea Moth, concerning which I wrote you 

 last summer, has steadily increased during the last six years until now it has come 

 to be a very serious matter. Many crops, especially such as have to be fit for seed, con- 

 tain from 5 to 25 per cent of moth-eaten pease which have to be picked out by hand at 

 great expense, in order to make the sample a satisfactory one. I do not know of any 

 remedy for this evil. 



" Our farmers find that pease grown after pease are apt to be more seriously affected 

 than pease grown after sod, but even in cases of this kind the damage is frequently very 

 considerable, especially in smooth varieties of pease. Am very much in hopes your in- 

 vestigation may result in discoveries which will enable our farmers to successfully com- 

 bat this serious enemy of the pea crop and restore the pea-growing industry to its 

 former prosperity." — J. M. Brooks. 



Remedies. — There is little danger of this insect increasing largely and becoming a 

 serious pest in gardens, because in most instances, the pease are picked early, and the 

 larvae destroyed before they are full grown. Miss Ormerod suggests that where " mag- 

 got attack is noticeable, the pea haulm should be cleared away directly the crop is 

 gathered, so that all stray pods (which are very likely to be infested) may be cleared 

 off the ground before the maggots leave the pods. This haulm should be carefully de- 

 stroyed at once ; the safest way is to burn it, and it would be a good plan to lay it 

 along the rows where the infested peas stood and burn it there, so as to get rid at once 

 of all grubs remaining in the pods or near the surface of the ground. For field treat- 

 ment, as the haulm could not well be spared, it would be desirable if a pea growing 

 district was infested, to plough deeply so as to bury the chrysalids deeply ; or to skim 

 the surface lightly so as to lay them open to the attacks of birds ; but commonly the 

 regular rotation of crops might be expected to prevent this infestation getting ahead. " 

 (Manual, p. 164.) 



From my own breeding experiments as well as from Mr. Cowdry's collections in 

 the fields, we know that this insect normally passes the winter in the fields where the 

 pease which the caterpillars had infested, were grown. This fact seems to be recognized 

 by pea-growers. Messrs. N. B. Keeney & Son write : — 



" Le Roy, 1ST. Y., July 24. — There seems to be a theory among farmers that pease 

 grown on fields where pease have been previously grown are more likely to have worms 

 than crops grown where pease have not been previously grown for some years. This 

 would seem to confirm your belief that the caterpillars spin their cocoons near the sur- 

 face of the soil." 



" August 6. — We cannot give you the names of farmers who state that pease 

 grown on land previously cropped to pease are more liable to attack from the insect un- 

 der discussion than new land ; but this is the general opinion among all growers, and 

 they try to avoid growing pease after pease, as far as possible, on this account, as well 

 as to avoid the danger of impoverishing the soil." 



The above records will show the importance of three things: (1) the planting of 

 pease as early as possible, and for a time at any rate growing the earliest ripening var- 

 ieties only, in an infested locality ; (2) the advisability of using every year fresh land, 

 as far as possible removed from fields used before for the cultivation of seed pease ; (3) 

 the value of deep ploughing so as to bury the chrysalids so deep that the moths could 

 not emerge. If, as suggested by Miss Ormerod, applications can be made to the growing 

 crop in order to prevent the moths laying their eggs, the most suitable for the purpose 

 would probably be carbolized plaster, or some other carbolized dry powder such as wood 

 ashes or slaked lime, 1 pint of crude carbolic acid with 50 pounds of the diluent. 



Mr. Cowdry writes with regard to remedies : — " I think ploughing deeply so as to 

 bury the cocoons far enough to prevent the moths from getting to the surface, is prefer- 

 able to shallow ploughing ; as it is probable, if the cocoons are on the surface, that they 

 would withstand the frost and not be a very tempting morsel for birds. 



