REPORT OF TEE ENTOMOLOGIST AND BOTANIST 171 



SESSIONAL PAPER No. 16 



fall wheat' that they try this experiment for themselves. They will at any rate convince 

 ihemselvcs that chess plants will grow from chess seeds, which is frequently stated not 

 to be the case. Several new varieties of grasses and clovers have been added to the 

 collection during the past year. 



Insects of the year. — A satisfactory feature of the year 1902 has been a marked de- 

 crease in the injuries by some of our well known pests, such as the Codling Moth, the 

 Cankerworms and the Tent Caterpillars, through most of our fruit-growing districts. 

 Insect enemies which require at tiie present time more attention than they are receiving 

 fjom the people most concei'ned, are the following. The Mediterranean Flour IVIoth, 

 although seldom mentioned, is becoming abundant in mills in various parts of 

 Canada. Where thorough fumigation with sulphur has been tried and frequently 

 repeated, the best results have been obtained. This, of course, must be accompanied 

 with scrupulous cleanliness, the mills being frequently swept down, and as small a stock 

 as possible of ground grain or cereal products, kept on hand. Opening the mills fre- 

 quently to the full intensity of the winter cold, has also been useful in checking this 

 insect. The Buflalo Carpet Beetle is extending the range over which it is a troublesome 

 household pest. The Eye-spotted Bud-moth did considerable harm in the orchards of 

 the Maritime Provinces last spring. In Manitoba, particularly about Sewell Station, 

 much loss resulted from neglecting to fight Locusts. The wheat crop of Manitoba was 

 in some places rather seriously injured by the Hessian Fly, but the ProWncial Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture has made widely known the best way to cope -with this pest. The 

 San Jose Scale work in south-western Ontario is now beginning to bear excellent fruit, 

 in the disco veiy of what may be called a practical remedy for this terrible pest. It has 

 been shown during the past summer that trees which have been thoroughly sprayed 

 early in the spring with the California lime-sulphur-and-salt wasli, as well as with a 

 modification of this, with the salt omitted, and subsequently with the ordinary kerosene 

 emulsion, may be kept free from injury by the San Jose Scale. There is every reason 

 to hope that, as this remedy becomes more generally applied, the San Jose Scale may be 

 brought down to the status of an ordinary fruit pest. It will, however, require con- 

 stant and extreme care, or the state of the orchards will soon revert to what it was 

 a year ago. The San Jose Scale is still the very worst insect we have ever had to fight, 

 and there must as yet be no relaxation whatever in the campaign against it. The insect 

 requiring perhaps more attention than any other at the present time, is the Pea 

 Wee\dl, which annually destroys upwards of one million dollars w^orth of the field peas 

 of Ontario. I have endeavoured to draw particular attention to this insect with ti>e 

 object of inducing all pea growers, whether seed merchants, farmers or private individuals, 

 to adopt the well tried and simple remedies by which this insect can be much reduced in 

 numbers. There are perhaps more reasons to hope that total extinction of this serious 

 enemy might be attained than is the case with many others we have to deal with. The 

 Cattle Horn-fly, possibly from the nature of the season, increased noticeably in many 

 parts of Canada, particularly in the maritime provinces, whence frequent demands for 

 advice were received. Another result of the wet weather which prevailed in most parts 

 of Canada, was the somewhat unusual amount of injury from slugs. These molluscs 

 are not insects, but it is to the student of insects that most inquiries regarding them are 

 directed. 



There were no important additions to our list of injurious insects during the past 

 year. The incident of greatest interest was the occurrence of a single specimen of the 

 Brown-tailed Moth at St. John, N. B., where it was captured by Mr. Wm. Mcintosh of 

 that city. This is a European pest which, after the notorious Gypsy Moth, lias caused 

 more anxiety than any other insect in the New England States, excepting perhaps the 

 San Jose Scale. Two fruit pests, enemies of the strawberry, the caterpillars of a geom- 

 eter moth, Petrojyhora truncata, and of a noctuid, Scopelosoma (risignata, probably only of 

 minor importance, have been received from British Columbia. These are widely distri- 

 buted insects but have never previously been complained of as enemies of the fruit 

 grower. 



