230 EXPERIMENTAL FARMS 



1-2 EDWARD VII., A. 1902 



1'illars. By June 23 they were rather troublesome under glass, 

 but of course were soon checked. During the first week of July, 

 I heard of the caterpillars in small numbers in several places, 

 but they soon yielded to the poisoned bran treatment. On July 

 11, I found caterpillars of all sizes in potato patches, and also 

 the first chrysalids, three in number. On July 22, the greater 

 part of the caterpillars were changing to chrysalids, only small 

 ones to be found. On July 31, the first moth emerged.' 



In visiting, last summer, many places in British Columbia 

 which had been devastated by the Variegated Cutworm during 

 1900, I made particular inquiries concerning this insect, but ex- 

 cept in the localities mentioned above, it had not been observed 

 at all. I was shown, by Mr. Tom Wilson, a collection of moths 

 reared from cutworms which had done great injury in his gar- 

 den at Vancouver in 1900 and was surprised to find in almost 

 equal numbers with the moths of the Variegated Cutworm, 



specimens of the beautiful moth Eupsephopccctcs procinctus, Grt., F |S- 8-— Variegated 

 the caterpillars of which Mr. "Wilson assured me were, in his , an egg enlarged', 

 garden at any rate, in equal numbers with those of P. saucia. 



He had noticed that the larvae had differed a good deal, but had saved no specimens. 

 I have pointed out frequently to my correspondents that I shall always be very much 

 obliged for living specimens sent by mail of any injurious insects, however abundant 

 or common they may be. I should in this instance have been particularly "glad to see 

 6ome of the cutworms of the moth E. procinctus. 



Cutworms. — Cutworms of various kinds in different parts of the Dominion have 

 as usual been the cause of more or less injury in gardens. One of the widest-spread 

 and most destructive species of which specimens have been sent in from localities 

 ranging all the way from Manitoba to Nova Scotia was the Bed-backed Cutworm 

 (Carneades ochrogasler, Gn.). The poisoned bran remedy has almost invariably given 

 satisfaction to those who have tried it. Unfortunately, some applicants for advice have 

 been so unpractical as to condemn this most useful remedy without trying it. By 

 experiment, I have proved that not only is it of great value in gardens, but it may be 

 used advantageously even in field practice. When cutworms are sufficiently abundant 

 to cause wholesale destruction, they, as a rule, assume the habit of army worms, moving 

 in large numbers from place to place as food becomes scarce, and it is frequently 

 possible to head them off from further progress by scattering poisoned bait in front of 

 the army. 



Boot Maggots (Anthomyia). — As is the case every year in some localities, cab- 

 bages, cauliflowers, radishes and onions have suffered much from these troublesome 

 in.vccts. They were decidedly more abundant than usual in some places in western 

 Assiniboia and around - Calgary, in Alberta, and also on the coast of British Columbia. 

 Mr. Daslnvood-Jones reports the Cabbage Maggot as abundant in the roots of cabbages 

 of ad kinds by May 15. At Ottawa, radishes and onions were being killed by the 

 middle of June, and cauliflowers and cabbages by the end of the same month. Disks 

 of tarred paper, slit from the margin to the centre and placed around the stems of 

 cabbages at the surface of the ground at the time of planting, gave excellent results ; 

 and plants treated by sprinkling a little sand impregnated with carbolic acid mixtures 

 wcie protected in a large measure. Dusting hellebore along rows of radishes from the 

 time they appeared above ground, once a week, also rendered them to a large measure 

 free from the maggots. Kainit and nitrate of soda had little effect on radishes, but 

 were very useful on all kinds of cabbages by inducing quickly a strong and vigorous 

 root growth. The small staphylinid beetle Aleochara nitida, Grav., which is certainly 

 e true parasite on these maggots, occurred in large numbers on some sandy lands at 



