240 EXPERIMENTAL FARMS 



4-5 EDWARD VII., A. 1905 



The weather throughout the past season has been such that insect occurrence of all 

 kinds has been markedly less than has been the case for the last thirty years, so that 

 the small numbers of the Codling Moth larvae seen this year must not be taken as an 

 indication that this most injurious enemy of the apple has disappeared to such an 

 extent that spraying for it is no longer necessary. Moreover, it must be remembered 

 that, by spraying apple trees at the times advised, viz., just when the buds are bursting 

 and once a fcrtnight for two months afterwards, not only is the Codling Moth kept in 

 check to the extent of saving an average of froroi 75 to nearly 100 per cent of the fruit, 

 from its ravages, but also a great many other insects as well as fungous diseases are 

 destroyed, giving the fruit-grower an enormous profit, compared with the cost of spray- 

 ing. 



Green Fruit Worm (Xylina, sp.). — When examining orchards at Gagetown in New 

 Brunswick, as well as in the Annapolis Valley and otlier places in Nova Scotia in June 

 last, I frequently came upon the larvie of a Xylina. These caterpillars, of which there 

 are many species very similar in appearance, are known by the name of Green Fruit 

 Worms, and have the haibit of gnawing large cavities in the sides of apples, as well as 

 devouring the foliage. The perfect moths from these caterpillars emerge in the autumn, 

 and after passing the winter as such, lay their eggs on the trees in spring. The best 

 remedy is the regular spraying of fruit trees with the poisoned Bordeaux mixture. 



The Red-humped Caterpillar (Schizura concinna, S. & A.). — This caterpillar 

 feeds upon a great many different kinds of trees besides the apple, and is seldom de- 

 structive except upon young trees. The eggs are laid in clusters, and the. caterpillars 

 are gregarious throughout their lives. Mr. E. P. Venables, of Vernon, B.C., reports 

 that they were numerous in his locality last summer and did much damage in young 

 orchards, in many cases the whole foliage being stripped from infested trees. He de- 

 tected a hymenopterous parasite which was doing good, and is now rearing specimen^ 

 so as to learn the identity of this useful insect. 



The Shot Borer {Xyleiorus dispar. Fab.). — There were several complaints from 

 fruit-growers in the Annapolis Valley, N.S., of injury to apple and plum trees by the 

 small wood boring beetle, which has received the name of the Shot Borer (Plate II, fig. 7). 

 There has not been much complaint concerning this insect since 1897, but last spring 

 its work was noticed in many places in the above district. The attack consists of a 

 small black burrow (Plate II, fig. 8), beginning generally at a' bud and running right 

 round the stem inside the wood and near the bark of young living trees. Inside this 

 there is often another burrow, find then a short perpendicular shaft at right angles 

 running down the centre of the twig or branch. There is variation in the nature of 

 the tunnels, according to the size of that part of the tree where they are located ; but 

 they are always about one-sixteenth of an inch in diameter, and if in a small branch or 

 stem form a circular gallery with an ascending or descending perpendicular shaft, 

 which serves as a brood chamber. When, as is sometimes the case, they occur in 

 trunks of young trees of moderate size, from 4 to 6 inches in diameter, the galleries 

 are straighter and simpler. These galleries are the homes and breeding chambers of 

 the larva) and their mother ; for, although this insect is the cause of much injury to trees, 

 with the exception of the wood- which is gnawed out to make the tunnels, the tissues 

 of the wood are not eaten either by the mature beetles or the larvse; but the tunnels 

 form caves within which a special kind ef fungus is cultivated by the beetles as food 

 for the larvae, which simply lie in a small cell and feed or are fed by their parents on 

 the fungus as it grows. An account of these beetles and their method of feeding upon 

 the ' ambrosia ' is most delightfully described by the late H. G. Hubbard, in an article 

 entitled ' The Ambrosia Beetles of the United States,' one of the most charming narra- 

 tives to be found in the literature of Economic Entomology. (See Bulletin No. 7, n.s., 

 U. S. Division of Entomology.) 



