liEPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGIST AND BOTANIST 183 



SESSIONAL PAPER No. 16 



Recommendations. 



Los;i by solving li'i'evilled Peas. — That seed peas wliicli have been bored by 

 weevils are very seriously injured, I have proved by actual experiments during the past 

 season and previously. Weevilled small peas in the past season, which was very 

 advantageous for growth, gave only from 13 to 20 per cent of plants, which bore pods, 

 and these were all weaker than plants from perfect seed. Large peas gave a better 

 percentage of from 16 to 28 per cent. Therefore, weevilled peas should not be used 

 for seed if any other stock is obtainable. If, however, this is impossible, much more 

 seed should be sown to the acre. 



Sngg''st(ons. — The present time must be considered as a crisis in the Canadian pea 

 market, but I feel sure that much may be done to relieve the situation. This must be 

 done, I think, not by legislation or by giving up the cultivation of such an important 

 crop as peas, which we cannot well do without, but by persuading everyone who sows 

 peas to abstain from sowing any peas which contain living weevils ; when purchasing 

 seed, to refuse determinedly to buy any without an assurance that they have been treated, 

 and further, even with this, to examine for themselves to see that any contained weevils 

 are really dead. I would also point out that, from the experiment already cited of 

 growing peas from weevilled seed, such seed is only worth about one quarter as 

 much as sound seed. To secure a supply of seed peas free from weevil injury, it will 

 be necessary for growers and farmers to handle their crop a little differently than has 

 been the usual practice. The injuiy is of an exceptional nature, and exceptional 

 measures must be taken to avoid loss. 



There are, however, special features about this attack which render its control 

 a simpler matter than is usually the case with injuries of an equal magnitude. The Pea 

 "Weevil is not a native insect and has no native food plant, in which it could propagate, 

 were there no cultivated peas. Indeed, it is so restricted in its food habits that no 

 other food plant is known than the difTerent cultivated varieties of true peas, belonging 

 to the botanical genus Pisum. These peas will not live over the winter in our climate 

 if left in the open field, at any rate, in any part of the country where the Pea Weevil is 

 known to breed, consequently, every seed pea sown for crop must, at some time before 

 it was sown, have been under the control of some one by whom it could have been 

 treated before sowing, to destroy the contained weevil, if it had one. The remedy is 

 effective, easy and cheap, is well known and can be applied by anyone. If all growers 

 would combine and do this, the larger number of the weevils would be destroyed in a 

 single year. This, however, would not be sufficient, because a certain number of the 

 insects sometimes leave the peas during the autumn when the seed ripens, and this 

 sometimes before the peas are carried from the fields. This fact is tht3 one great diffi- 

 culty in arriving at a perfect remedy, but I do not believe that it is insurmountable. 

 There is every indication that a much smaller percentage of weevils left the seed in the 

 autumn of 1902 than is frequently the case. The suggestions I have to offer are briefly 

 as follows : 



(1.) — That all peas for seed should be treated before they are sown to kill the 

 weevil and that seeding should be done as early as possible, so as to get them ripe 

 enoujjh to harvest earlier than is the usual custom. 



'O 



(2.) — That pea growers should harvest their peas as much on the green side as 

 is safe, rather than as is usually done now, when they are dead ripe, and thresh and treat 

 them themselves or sell at once to grain buyers. This has many advantages. Not only 

 is the straw of very much higher quality for feed, but the seed is heavier and better for 

 every purpose, for export, for feed and also for seed, because it is of higher germinating 

 power, and further, because the weevil at that time is much less advanced in growth 

 and consequently has destroyed a much smaller proportion of the bulk of the seed. The 

 average dates for pea harvesting are from July 20 to August 20 I have no record of 

 the Pea Weevil becoming mature and leaving the seed before August 15, and it is usually 



