REPORT OF THE EXTOMOLOGIST AND BOTANIST 187 



SESSIONAL PAPER No. 16 



is yet to be found out. Several people who have used it as above, report it is not strong 

 enough. The great difficulty is to thoroughly mix the stuff ; this is best accomplished 

 by mixing the Paris green in water first. Though I still recommend salt, yet I believe 

 with fresh droppings it may be unnecessary. The poison mixture has been found much 

 more effecti\e when spread during hot sunny weather. 



In conclusion, it is perhaps hardly necessary to add that the Paris green mixture 

 has proved an unqualified success wherever persisted in and used according to directions, 

 and that it is far ahead of any other remedy which has been tried here after the locusts 

 have once hatched. My statement in your 1900 lleport that locusts eat the poisoned 

 mixture more eagerly when they are old tlian when young, has not been borne out by 

 recent observations : in fact, I now see that it is somewhat the other way. 



Norman Criddle. 



As to the remark made by Mr. Criddle that some reported the mixture of 1 part 

 of Paris green in 60 of horse droppings as not being strong enough, I believe that these 

 observers were mistaken, and that the misapprehension arose from the fact that Paris 

 green is a slow acting, although a very fatal poison. I have found dead locusts which 

 had plainly been killed by this mixture, fully 100 yards from where the poison had been 

 distributed around the edge of a crop. Mr. Criddle found that a simple way to keep 

 locusts on the edge of a field of wheat is to sow a strip of rye around it. This grain 

 grows much more rapidly than wheat, and takes a lot of eating down to kill it. By 

 this means the insects are held where they are easily poisoned. 



The plan which has been found most convenient for distributing this poisoned bait 

 is described in my 1901 report. The Criddle mixture, as recently modified, consists of 

 1 part of Paris green, mixed thoroughly in 60 of fresh horse droppings to which 2 lbs. 

 of salt per half barrel of mixture have been added after being dissolved in water. This 

 is placed in a half barrel and drawn on a cart to the edge of an infested field or one likely 

 to be infested. The mixture is then scattered broadcast along the edge of the crop by 

 means of a trowel or wooden paddle. The locusts are attracted to it from long distances 

 and are killed in lai"ge numbers by eating the poison. 



FRUIT 



THE SAN" JOSE SCALE 



(Aspidiotus perniciosus, Comst.). 



During the summer of 1902 a great many experiments have been tried looking to 

 the discovery of a practical remedy for this most pernicious insect. The results obtained 

 by INIr. Geo. E. Fisher, the Provincial Government Inspector, have been most gratifying. 

 Mr. Fisher has supplied me with the following report : — 



'Freeman, Ont., Nov. 29. — I have much pleasure in sending you as requested a 

 i-eport of what was done this year in working out remedies for the San Jose Scale, but 

 have little to add to what you have seen yourself in the orchards where these experi- 

 ments were carried out. This has been altogether the most satisfactory year I have 

 had in scale work, and I feel very much encouraged, not only by the results obtained, 

 which indicate that the scale may be perfectly controlled regardless of conditions in 

 surrounding orchards, but also by the many letters I have received from friends who 

 have seen the results. 



' In the experiments I used whale-oil soap in various forms, crude petroleum in a 

 variety of ways, and lime and sulphur with and without salt, and in different propor- 

 tions in winter. Fumigation and crude oil emulsion in winter and summer, and kerosene 

 emulsion in summer. Other remedies were tried but with less satisfaction. 



