194 EXPERIMENTAL FARMS. 



odour, is heavier than air, and therefore sinks readily to the bottom and permeates the 

 whole contents of any closed receptacle in which it is used to free grain of infesting 

 insects. 



Great care must be taken in the use of this chemical on account of the extreme in- 

 flammability both of the liquid and its vapour. No fire, such as a flame or even a lighted 

 pipe or cigar, must be taken near either the liquid or the bin in which the pease have 

 been treated, for some time after it is opened and the heavy and inflammable vapour has 

 been let out. Treating seed of any kind with bisulphide of carbon has no deleterious 

 effect upon the vitality of the seed nor upon its wholesomeness as food. 



The question sometimes arises whether pease badly infested with weevils can be 

 used safely for feed. I find upon inquiry that it is a general practice to grind up weevilly 

 pease and use them for feed, and no injury to stock has been reported so far. Mr. T. 

 G. liaynor, answering this very question in the Farmer's Advocate for March 1, 1897, 

 says : — " The cull pease from re-cleaning the pease at the seed houses, after being 

 treated for the bug, are used for feeding purposes, and I have not heard of any injury." 

 Mr. Wellington Boulter, the Mayor of Picton, Ont., one of the most important centres 

 of the seed-pea trade in Canada, also writes as follows : — ** November 26. — In re your 

 inquiry as to grinding pease infested with pea-weevil for pigs, injury to stock, <fec., I 

 would most emphatically say no injury could happen. I have ground up quantities in 

 the past. I have also fed pigs with the pease in the natural state and never heard of 

 any injury. In grinding, the bugs would be ground to powder." 



Holding over seed. — Some people may not care to have such a dangerous material 

 as bisulphide of carbon about their premises. For such, an excellent remedy is holding 

 over until the second year after harvesting any pease required for seed. This may be 

 done in the case of pease without any injury to their vitality. They should be inclosed 

 in paper or cotton bags, which will be sufficient to prevent the beetles from escaping 

 when they emerge. At the time of sowing the pease, they should be examined and if 

 necessary hand-picked; every grain which has been perforated should be discarded, as 

 frequent experiments have proved that it is impossible to grow strong plants from 

 weevilled pease, although unfortunately there is a widespread belief to the contrary. 



The Pea Moth {Semasia nigricana, Steph.). — This enemy of the pea, which has 



been treated of in former reports without a 

 specific name, has this year been identified 

 (from specimens bred from larvae collected 

 last year at Ottawa) through the kindness of 

 Prof. C. H. Fernald, of Amherst, Mass., who 

 writes : — Your pea insect was greased and 

 unspread, and therefore difiicult to determine ; 

 but I believe it to be Semasia nigricana. 

 which is now considered distinct from 

 nebritana, Treits, under which it was placed 

 as a synonym by Wocke in Staudinger's Cata- 

 Fig. 3.— The Pea Moth— natural size andenlarpred. logue. It is probably identical with pisana, 

 Guen., and has long been placed under the genus Semasia, hutMeyrick in his Handbook 

 o/ British Lepidopiera puts it under the genus Laspeyresia, Hbn. 



The accompanying figure has been kindly supplied for this report by Messrs. 

 Blackie & Son, of Glasgow, Scotland. It is by John Curtis, and was used in his great 

 work " Farm Insects." 



Six specimens of the moth were bred, and all emerged between the 12th and 15th 

 of July. As the cocoons were kept under natural conditions this is probably the time 

 when the moths appear in nature, which would emphasize the value oH the remedy 

 already suggested of early sowing. The moth is small and inconspicuous, J of an inch 

 long when the wings are closed, mouse-coloured, bronzed towards the tips of the wings, 

 silvery gray beneath. The only markings are along the front margin or costa and near 

 the apex of the upper wing. The co.«val marks consist of about 10 or 12 short black 

 triangular streaks, separated from each other by similar clear white dashes all directed 

 backwards ; two of the black streaks, however, the third and fifth, which start from 



