160 - EXPERIMENTAL FARMS. 



The following donations of plants and seeds have been received during the year : 



Prof, Beal, Michigan Agricultural College : collection of grass seeds, 14 species. 



F. Turner, Esq., Botanist, Department of Agriculture, New South Wales : seeds 

 of grasses and fodder plants, 19 species. 



Prof. 0. Lugger, Minnesota Experiment Station : collection of grass seeds, 37 

 species. 



Steele, Briggs, Marcou & Co., Toronto : collection of imported grass seeds, 34 

 species, and 13 varieties of rape. 



W. E. Carles, Esq., Chinkiang, China : seeds of Stillingia sebifera and Anemone 

 cernua ; also bulbs of Tulipa edulis. 



J. A. Balkwill, Esq,, London, Ont. : roots of native plants. 



I have the honour to be, sir, 



Your obedient servant, 



JAMES FLETCHEE, 



Entomologist and Botanist. 



DIVISION OF ENTOMOLOGY. 



The grain crops of the Dominion as a whole have been less injured by insect 

 pests during the past season than has been the case for many years. The only 

 occurrencesofunusualseverity have been by Cut-worms to wheat in Manitoba, and by 

 Locusts chiefly to oats in Ontario. Specimens of the true Army-worm {Leucania 

 unipuncta, Haw.) from which the moths were subsequently raised, were sent to me 

 from Manitoba by Mr. Eichard Waugh, of Winnipeg, who writes as follows : — 



"August 4. — I send you this day samples of some caterpillars which have ap- 

 peared in great numbers on the end of a wheat field, just outside the city, eating 

 both blades and ears. The field abuts on the river and the path is strewn with the 

 worms which are in great force." 



" August 18. — The army-worm has destroyed a lot of wheat on the east side of the 

 Eed Eiver in Northern Minnesota, and I believe our visitation is a stray lot from 

 that section. They devoured both the leaves and the green heads, but vanished in 

 a few days." 



The Wheat-stem Maggot (Meromyza Americana, Fitch) was observed to a small 

 extent in wheat fields in the Ottawa district; but few complaints were received from 

 other parts. The larvae were found much more abundantly this year in the root- 

 shoots of grasses than in the stems of wheat and barley. 



CUT-WOEMS IN GEAIN CEOPS. 



Year after year complaints are received concerning the injuries of Cut-worms to 

 grain crops, and during the past season, these have been very numerous in Manitoba 

 and parts of the North-west Territories. Up to the present time no satisfactory 

 remedy has been devised to put a stop to these depredations. A great desideratum 

 is more knowledge as to the exact identity and life habits of the species concerned. 

 I trust I may be able next year with the assistance of correspondents in the West, 

 to obtain specimens and work out the life histories and food habits of some of the 

 western Cut-worms, on which there is yet much to learn before a practical remedy 

 can be recommended. The following letters will, I think, give an idea of the urgency 



