REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGIST AND BOTANIST 



(James Fletcher, F.E.S.C, F.L.S.) 



W. Saunders, Esq., 



Director, Dominion Experimental Farms, 

 Ottawa. 



Sir, — I have the honour to hand you herewith a report upon some of the more 

 important subjects which have been brought officially under my notice during the 

 past season. 



DIVISION OP ENTOMOLOGY, 



With regard to insects injurious to the agriculturalindustrieSjthe enormousincrease 

 and spread of the Cattle Horn-fly claim first mention. This fly has undoubtedly caused 

 great loss. Where the well known remedies have been applied perseveringly, there 

 has been decided relief to the infested cattle, and much needless loss has been averted. 

 In most instances of failure, I have found on inquiry that the remedy had been 

 applied once or twice only and then given up. Canadian farmers must recognize the 

 fact that this is an exceptional visitation, and that therefore they must take excep- 

 tional measures to combat it. As to the trouble and expense of these measures, leaving 

 aside altogether a consideration of the cruelty to the animals, that is merely a matter 

 of dollars and cents. The question which all must ask themselves, is, Will the bene- 

 fit I shall reap overbalance the cost of the applications? In reply to this I can 

 answer emphatically that it will, many times over, and further, that the better they 

 attend to the instructions given, so much greater will the profit be. Judging from 

 the past history of the introduction and spread of this pest in America, I am led to 

 hope that in districts which have been badly infested this season, the attack will 

 be decreasingly less severe year after year in future. 



Grasshoppers have been destructive in western Ontario and a few of the usual 

 fruit peats have been locally abundant. Two of the worst ot these, the Plum Curculio 

 and the Codling Moth, have caused much injury in Ontario. Spraying the trees with 

 Paris green for both of these pests still remains the best remedy. Where the work 

 is done carefully and intelligently it is practically all sufficient, the occasional cases 

 of failure which are sometimes heard of, and these are very rare, are almost invari- 

 ably due to careless work. One of the most remarkable instances I have ever seen 

 of the results of good careful work, was in the orchard of Mr. S. A. Fisher at Knowlton, 

 Que. When I visited him in September last, I could not find in his orchard a 

 single apple which had been injured by the Codling Moth. This was the first year 

 he had sprayed his orchard. In previous years hie crop had always been badly 

 infested, and this year the orchards of his neighbours all around him, none of which 

 had been sprayed, were so still. In British Columbia, where fruit-growing has be- 

 come a leading industry of the country, the Apple Aphis has developed in a remark- 

 able manner and is doing much harm. Besides information from my own corres- 

 pondents I see by the extremely valuable report for 1892, published by Mr. J. R. An- 

 derson, the Statistician of the Department of Agriculture of British Columbia, one of 

 the best colonial reports I have ever seen, that this insect is alarmingly abundant and 

 destructive throughout the province. 



