32 EXPERIMENTAL FARMS 



5 GEORGE v., A. 1915 



secure their shipments without great delay, aa essential condition for successful 

 planting. As insuperable difficulties had been encountered in regard to the intercep- 

 tion for the purposes of inspection and fumigation of shipments of nursery stock 

 sent through tho mails, the importation through the mails of those classes of 

 nursery stock which required inspection or fumigation was prohibited by Order in 

 Council, and the regulation came into effect on March 1. The entry of European 

 nursery stock via the port of St. John, N.B., during the period December 8 to March 

 4, was also made possible by amending regulation 6. Owing to the repeated discovery 

 of pol>atoes imported into British Columbia from California which were infested 

 with the Potato Tuber Moth, one of the most serious insect pests affecting the 

 potato, this insect was scheduled under section 12 of the regulations. Further, 

 as a result of an inquiry made in Calif oo'nia by the Dominion Enfcomolog-ist-, the 

 importataon of potsatoes from California was prohibited. 



In the addition to the new fumigration station at North Portal, Sask., new stations 

 and additions to our accommodation for dealing with imported nursery stock have 

 been erected at St. John, N.B., and Niagara Falls. During the importation seafou 

 of 1'912-13, which closed in May, 1913, over four million trees and plants were 

 inspected. 



The Brown-tail Moth control work includes the scouting work during the winter 

 months, a study of the bionomics of the insect and the importation of pai'a&ites and 

 their colonization during the summer. In New Brunswick the scouting woa-k was 

 carried on by a field force of nine men, four of whom were employed by the Provin- 

 cial Government. The work for the season 1912-13 was concluded in February, and 

 only eighty-one winter webs of the Brown-tail Moth, as compared with 2,452 in 

 1911-12, were colleicted in the seven (X)unties at present infested. This decrease 

 was largely due to the absence of any invasion of the moths from Maine during the 

 flying season in July, 1912. In Nova Scotia a field force of nine men, four of whom 

 •were employed by the Provincial Government, collected over 11,000 winter webs, 

 both the infested territory and the number of webs being greater than in the 

 previous year. 



The investigations on the bionomics of the Brown-tail Moth, particularly on the 

 effect of temperature and the dropping of the webs during the winter, were continvied 

 with Tiseful results. 



The importation of the parasites of the Brown-tail and Gipsy Moths from Massa- 

 chusetts was continued through the courteous co-operation of Dr. L. O. Howard, Chief 

 of the Bureau of Entomology of the United States Department of Agriculture, and 

 his assistants. An officer was stationed at the Gipsy Moth Parasite Laboratory, 

 Melrose Highlands, Mass., to collect parasitized caterpillars, rear them and breed out 

 the parasites. The parasites were then shipped to the Entomological Laboratory at 

 Fredericton, N.B., and distributed from there to various selected localities. Alto- 

 gether 46,548 cocoons of the hymenopterous parasite, Apanteles lacteicolor, 5,738 

 puparia of the parasitic fly Compsilura concinnata, and 475 cocoons of the hymen- 

 opterous par-asite Meteoras versicolor were secured and shipped. In addition, 200 

 adults of the imported European predaceous beetle Calosoma sycophanta were col- 

 lected and shipped to New Brunswick, and 976 larvse were collected, fed and allowed 

 to hibernate. 



In addition to the importation and colonization of these native parasites of the 

 Gipsy and Brown-tail Moths, imported originally by the United States Government 

 from Europe and Asia, a careful study of the native parasites of certain of our "com- 

 moner insects, such as the Tent Caterpillar {Malacosoma disstria), and the Fall 

 Web-worm {Ilyphantria cunea) was begun, such an investigation being very neces- 

 sary in connection with the work on the natural control of lepidopterous insects. 



