218 EXPERIMENTAL FARMS. 



64 VICTORIA. A. 1901 



for the pigs last fall. They have destroyed about an acre of sugar beet adjoining 

 this pit. We have them also around the house on the clover, and they have stripped 

 the hops from the verandah. We have a few on our hop-yards, but very few. We 

 trust that they will not increase on the hope, as they are too far advanced to spray 

 with Paris green. We are poisoning with Paris green on our sugar beet, and also 

 surrounding the patch with a ditch and water to try and stop them travelling. Are 

 they likely to be worse next year.' — D. C. Ricardo. 



' Comox, B.C., July 23. — I send a number of caterpillars. Please let me know 

 all about them, as they are in such numbers here at present as to be a perfect scourge, 

 «nd threaten to destroy all vegetation. They attack everything green, field crops, 

 garden crops and house plants. They are here in millions, and ai-e as destructive to 

 the i>otato as the Colorado Beetle, but are equally so to turnips and other crops. 

 They eat every portion of the leaf except the ribs, which they leave bare and dead. 

 I have been all over the district, and find the pest universal. We are spraying with 

 Paris green.' — John J. R. Millar. 



' Agassiz, B.C., July 24. — I send five cutworms. These are so plentiful that I 

 picked five on the walk without moving a foot. They are eating the leaves of many 

 of the shrubs, vines, &c., besides garden plants. In the orchard they have attacked 

 the pears. In the field they are eating the fleshy outside covering of the pea pods. 

 The only remedy I can. suggest is to sweeten a bran mash and doctor it with Paris 

 green. They are here in swarms. What can we do to protect our crops ? ' — Thos. A. 

 Sharpe. 



' Froek, B.C., July 25. — I wish you could tell me how to get rid of these worms 

 out of my garden and potato fields. The ground is just covered with them. They 

 eat leaves, stems and everything of vegetables, and then take the root very often. 

 They have destroyed everything for me this year, so that I shall have nothing for 

 winter use. Is there anything I can do to prevent these things next year ? I never 

 saw anything like them before. In the parcel I send, the small ones are picked from 

 the stems and the big ones from the ground.' — Nils Fralander. 



* Victoria, B.C., July 25. — The enormous numbers of cutworms have naturally 

 reduced the food supply and made it necessary for them to change their usual feeding 

 habits. This necessitates a corresponding change in methods of fighting them. I 

 find them distributed all over all kinds of plants, vegetables, flowers, &c., and feeding 

 at all times of the day and night ; in roots such as carrots and mangels, they eat holies 

 and live inside these ; also in tomatoes ; in fact, they are everywhere. Many com- 

 plaints are coming in now of their injuring fruit trees and fruit, and the loss 

 to the farming community on their account is going to be very large. In many cases 

 people are slow to use Paris green, being afraid of it, or use it too late. I have had 

 excellent results where the pests are distributed promiscuously over the plants by using 

 a Paris green mixture, dusted or blown through the entire leaf surface, one pound of 

 Paris green to twenty pounds of flour, while the bran and arsenic mixture is effective 

 only in certain instances. A Paris green spray is not so generally effective as the 

 powder form, but I think this is due to the fact that many persons spray too heavily 

 and most of the poison is washed off the plants. Reports are coming in now from 

 Saanich that grain crops are suffering and the work of the cutworms seems almost 

 identical with that of the true Army Worm. It is certainly the most serious occurrence 

 of this nature since I have been in office. I shall be glad to know the proper names 

 of the species as soon as you have reared them. I suppose there will be several 

 different kinds.' — R. M. Palmer. 



* Victoria, B.C., August 17. — It is quite a relief to know that you consider it un- 

 likely that we shall have another plague of cutworms next year. Such an event would 

 be indeed disastrous. My own investigations have led me to come to the same con- 

 clusions as were stated in your recent letter to Mr. Anderson, namely, that so many 

 of the cutworms are parasitized, at any rate in some localities, that tbero is no reason 

 to anticipate such a plague in 1901, as we have had this season.' — R. M. Palmer. 



