228 EXPERIMENTAL FARMS 



1-2 EDWARD VII., A. 1902 



ing another hundred acres from every side, but that a few doses of Paris green stopped 

 them promptly and the dead grasshoppers could be gathered up with a shovel. Thi» 

 hundred acres yielded 1,700 bushels of wheat. 



Mr. Griddle's investigations and experiments are of great interest, and his discov- 

 ery that horse droppings may with advantage be substituted for bran is of great prac- 

 tical value. This material is always available on a farm, while bran, which was for- 

 merly used as the best vehicle for distributing the poison, costs money and is neither 

 60 suitable for holding the poison nor so attractive to the locusts. Mr. Criddle was 

 led to experiment with horse droppings from noticing that locusts flocked to this ma- 

 terial whenever it was found lying on roadways. The mixture of horse droppings, salt 

 and Paris green is undoubtedly the most attractive, fatal, and cheap remedy for locusts 

 which I have ever seen used. It is easily distributed with a trowel, or wooden paddle, 

 from a barrel placed in a wagon and driven round the edge of the field. It can be 

 readily scattered for a distance of 20 or 30 feet out into the crop, by a person standing 

 in the wagon. It is only when the locusts are in excessive numbers that this poison 

 mixture would require to be distributed as frequently as was done by Mr. Criddle last 

 summer. On Mr. Russell's farm, poison scattered a fortnight before my visit, al- 

 though there had been several showers of rain since it was put out, was still being 

 eaten by grasshoppers with avidity, and the insects were found dying all through the 

 crop. As Paris green is insoluble, the mixture remains in an effective state as long 

 as the adhesive properties of the horse droppings last. This remedy should be tried at 

 once wherever locusts occur in destructive numbers. It will be noticed from my re- 

 port printed above and from Mr. McKellar's and Mr. Griddle's letters, that in almost 

 every instance where locusts were in large numbers, they had originated in land which 

 had been under crop the previous year and which had been left for summer-fallowing 

 during the present season. This accentuates the importance of early summer-fallow- 

 ing. The ploughing down of all stubbles in localities where locusts have been abun- 

 dant, should be attended to immediately seeding operations are finished. If this is 

 impossible, it should at any rate be done before the insects reach the winged condition. 



The species of locusts responsible for most of the injury in Manitoba were the 

 Lesser Migratory Locust, the Rocky Mountain Locust, the Two-striped Locust, Pack- 

 ard's Locust and the Pellucid Locust. After leaving Manitoba and proceeding west- 

 ward last summer, it was observed that locusts of all kinds were unusually scarce until 

 British Columbia was reached. In this province much harm was done by these insects 

 at certain places down the Okanagan and Nicola valleys. At the Coldstream ranch, 

 at Vernon, B.C., fodder plants and orchard trees were injured to a considerable extent, 

 and in driving down the Nicola valley from Kamloops to Nicola Lake, the grass on the 

 ranges was found to be much reduced in quantity. Shrubs and Aspen Poplar trees 

 in gullies were also much defoliated. Crops of oats and other grains, as well as tur- 

 nips and garden plants, were in some places stripped bare. This injury in the Nicola 

 valley was chiefly by the Pellucid Locust, and M. a ffinis, Brum, a species very closely 

 resembling the Rocky Mountain Locust in colour, but closer, I am informed by Mr. E. 

 M. Walker, of Toronto, to M. atlanis. It is bright-coloured like the Rocky Mountain 

 Locust, but smaller in size. Id. affinis was also taken at Kelowna on Lake Okanagan. 

 The locust which was attacking fruit trees at Vernon, was the Lesser Migratory Lo- 

 cust (M. allanis). 



ROOT CROPS AND VEGETABLES. 



The turnip crop in Canada during the past year, as a general thing, has been good, 

 somewhat affected, however, in some places by the dry weather after midsummer. 

 There was little complaint of the Turnip Flea-beetle, probably on account of the fav- 

 ourable spring. 



