REPORT OF THE EXTOMOLOGIST AND BOTANIST 219 



SESSIONAL PAPER No. 16 



3. That everybody -viriio understands the gravity of this question should use every 

 endeavour to persuade all growers of pease to abstain from sowing any pease which 

 contain living woevils, and, when purchasing seed, to refuse determinedly to buy any 

 without an assurance from the seed merchant that they have been treated, and, even 

 with this assurance, to examine for themselves to see that any contained weevils are 

 really dead. There are two points which should always be remembered by those who 

 piirc]iase iKiase for sowing. Seeds which have been injured by weevil are so much 

 reduced in vitality and producing power that they are only worth about one-quarter 

 !>?, much as sound seed, and also, that treatniient with bisulphide of carbon in no way 

 injures the pease, whether they are to be used for seed or to be fed to stock. 



FIELD CROPS. 



The irre^iliir nature of the weather during the summer months of 1904, which 

 has already been referred to under cereal crops, was manifested even more plainly by 

 its effects upon fodder crops. Good hay crops were the exception, perhaps the best 

 being secured in western Quebec and central and northern Ontario. Com was nowhere 

 heavy nor well developed. Complaints of poor seed were frequent; but it is possible 

 that some of the disappointment was due rather to weather conditions than to lack of 

 quality in the seed. Late spring frosts did some injury, and early frosts in autumn 

 reduced very much the weight of ensilage corn per acre. The Ontario returns sum 

 up the crop as follows : — * Com for the silo is described by some as being of inferior 

 quality, while many others claim that it will be good or of fair quality. Taken alto- 

 gether, however, it has been a decidedly jwor year for com.' In the Maritime Pro- 

 vinces and Quebec some injury was done by cutworms, necessitating replanting and 

 a consequent retarding of the crop, so that it was caught by frost in the autumn. 

 The drought which prevailed from the Temiscouata district in Quebec to the sea coast 

 reduced enormously hay crops, which up till the first of June were apparently in a 

 flourishing condition. Writing of the climatic conditions in Prince Edward Island, 

 the Rev. Father Burke says : — ' The season opened with much promise, and there was 

 more soil moisture than we have had for several years. The weather was warm and 

 genial, and the opportunity for getting the crop in was unexcelled. Towards the end 

 of June, however, the complete absence of rain began to be felt, and, as almost every 

 Jay we had high winds from the south-west, growing crops became a ^eater concern to 

 farmers. We liad merely a few insignificant showers till away on to the last of SeiJ- 

 tember, so that grass and all forage crops were seriously affected- Hay was not half 

 a crop, and grain in land not particulai'ly rich in humus very poor indeed. We are 

 exceedingly short of fodder, and the government is importing hay from Quebec to pre- 

 vent the wholesale slaughter of cattle.' 



A much brighter report comes from British Columbia, notwithstanding that large 

 areas were affected by drought. Mr. J. R. Anderson reports grasses and clovers as 

 giving ' good yields throughout the province, and on account of favourable weather 

 hay was mostly well cured. Bed clover, alfalfa, sainfoin and alsike in different loca- 

 lities gave some surprisingly large yields on irrigated lands, as much as three crops 

 being cut in places. Timothy is largely grown, but its production is discouraged, as 

 other grasses are preferable for pasture.' 



Insect enemies of these crops were not complained of to any large extent ; but this 

 cannot be taken to mean that no injury was done. Enormous losses may be sustained 

 in hay and fodder crops without farmers noticing the fact. Then, again, some losses 

 have become so much a matter of every year occurrence that no mention is made of 

 them in reports. This is particularly the case with the Cloves-seed Midge, to which I 



