REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGIST AND BOTANIST. 219 



SESSIONAL PAPER No. 16 



' Agassiz, B.C., July 27. — There is what is to me a strange feature in this attack, 

 the cutworms are eating a number of my Thuyas. Thuya vervaeneana is one that they 

 appear to be particularly fond of. There appears to be a slacking off in the numbers 

 of these cutworms now, but this may be only temporary. However, many are going 

 into chrysalis just under the suface of the ground. Would it be well to plough clover 

 fields with a shallow furrow and plough or disc with a spading harrow all other fields ? 

 Wovdd this have any effect in lessening the caterpillars or killing the chrysalids ? I 

 dislike the idea of ploughing up my clover, but would not hesitate if it would be useful. 

 I am told that some hop yards will not pick a hop. Mr. Breed, in Saanich, is one who 

 has no crop this year, on account of the cutworms, and they have begun on the yards 

 here. I saw a field of four acres of potatoes this morning, and I think there is not 

 a hatful of foliage left in the field. Ours, so far, are saved, but how long this will 

 continue I do not know. I sprayed roots, potatoes and trees, until all my poison was 

 gone, and now I would use poisoned bait if I could get the poison, but cannot before 

 Monday or Tuesday.' — Thos. A. Sharpe. 



' Mayweed, Victoria, B.C., July 28. — I send specimens of a cutworm which is 

 devastating the gardens and fields round Victoria. WTiole crops of roots are entirely 

 eaten up, and the corn is now being attacked. It is the most serious disaster I have 

 seen in the eleven years I have lived here. Round five turnips in my garden I found 

 236 cutworms. Many farmers have lost their entire crops of carrots, potatoes and 

 other roots. A row of sweet peas, sprayed with double-strength Paris green, was again 

 covered 12 hours later. ISTothing escapes. Carnations have every flower bud eaten 

 out. Dahlias are eaten to the stems. We shall soon have nothing left. They have 

 attacked the flowers in the conservatories and the tomato houses, where I have poisoned 

 them with bran and P^is green.' — J. W. Webb. 



' Victoria, B.C., July 30. — Yesterday I drove out about five miles and saw several 

 gardens. I assure you it was a sorry sight. In some places even rhubarb was entirely 

 stripped, only the stalks and leaf ribs being left. Potatoes were stripped to bare 

 stalks, and the worms were eating the tubers. Some tubers had four or five cutworms 

 in them. These latter are so abundant that they are crawling about in search of food 

 by day.' — Geo. A. Knight. 



' Langley Prairie, B.C., July 30. — The worms are destroying potatoes and root 

 crops. Yesterday was the first day I noticed them. They have been very bad at 

 Chilliwack.' — D. H. I^elson. . 



' Kaslo, B.C., July 31. — We have been suffering all through the Kootenays for 

 several weeks past with a plague of grubs, not the ordinary cutworm, but a dark grub 

 which has attacked all vegetables and almost all flowers. I am now trying whale-oil 

 soap and quassia. The latter I have found the best thing for roses, but from all I can 

 see these remedies will have no effect against this grub.' — Geo. Alex.vnder. 



' Armstrong, B.C., August 1. — The cutworms are much larger than our ordinary 

 cutworm, and have been much later in appearing. They are doing an immense amount 

 of damage nearly all over the province, some potato fields being about destroyed. 

 Some people assert that it is the Army Worm.' — Donald Graham. 



* Victoria, B.C., August 3. — I have one moth hatched out and many chrysalids, so 

 I hope the worst is over for this season. Still there are many small larvse yet.' — R. 

 M. Palmer. 



' Agassiz, B.C., August 6. — I am sending cutworms of very different sizes. I 

 found them and the chrysalids in the same bed of garden peas. There were so many 

 chrysalids that I was in hopes the trouble was nearly over, but, if the smaller ones 

 have to grow as large as the big ones, it must be some time yet before they pass away.* 

 — Wm. S. Jemmett. 



' Agassiz, B.C., August 11. — The cutworm nuisance seems to be abating at last.'— 

 Thos. A. Sharpe. 



