REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGIST AND BOTANIST. 199 



Remedy. — The only remedy which can be suggested for this insect when it attacks 

 such plants as beetroots and mangels is to dust the young plants at the end of May and 

 during the first part of June, when the grubs appear, with a poisonous mixture such as 

 Paris green and some powdery diluent, e. g., flour, land plaster or ashes, one part to 50. 

 In the case of spinach, it may be necessary to cover the plants with netting or cheese 

 cloth for a time ; or a more attractive food plant such as lamb's quarters, or the native 

 ■weed of the West, Monolepis, which is stated to be the favourite food plant of this insect, 

 may be sown close to the spinach to draw off the attack. 



FHUITS. 



The fruit crop of Canada for the year 1897, although in no way comparable for 

 quantity with that of last year, has been, on the whole, a good crop, and where spraying 

 has been adopted good profits have been made. It is to be regretted, however, that 

 some of our less progressive fruit growers have not yet adopted this most useful means 

 of saving money. This is in some measure due to the ignorance of fruit buyers, who, it 

 seems, cannot be taught that there is not the slightest danger from the use of fruit from 

 trees which have been sprayed, and that, if sufficient poison were used to make the 

 practice dangerous, the fruit grower would be the first to sufifer, because the amount of 

 poison necessary for that would cause both leaves and fruit to fall from the trees long 

 before the fruit was ripe. 



It would take too much space to give extracts from letters of practical business men 

 who have learnt from experience the value of the practice of spraying against injurious 

 insects and fungous diseases ; but hundreds might be cited. 



Among fruit insects of the present season the San Jose Scale has been the subject 

 of extensive correspondence ; but many other insects which, except for the anxiety 

 thus aroused, would not have attracted notice, have also been inquired about. Some of 

 those species which may be called the standard pests of the orchard and fruit garden, 

 have been less in evidence than usual. Next to the San Jose Scale, Tent Caterpillars 

 called for most information, and occurred in injurious numbers both in orchards and 

 upon forest trees. In the Ottawa district basswoods (Tilia) were much injured and 

 groves of aspen (Populus tremuloides, Michx.) for many miles along the Ottawa River were 

 stripped perfectly bare of foliage in the month of June. At Bewdley, Northumberland 

 Co., Ont., Mr. T. W. Raram, says : — " I never saw so many Tent Caterpillars as there 

 were here this spring." Mr. Ramm also bred from the cocoons several 

 ; specimens of the useful " ichneumon fly " Pimp/a pec/a/^is, Cress. Mr. 

 F. W. Payne sent specimens of the Forest Tent Caterpillar from Hall's 

 Glen, Peterboro' Co., Ont.: — "July 17. As I drove along the road 2| 

 miles from here, I noticed that the maple trees were defoliated to the 

 extent of ^ to | of their foliage, and hundreds of moths were flitting 

 through the branches. The cocoons hung in the maples, by hundreds, 

 one to each leaf with the edges drawn together by a web." 



Tent Caterpillar injuries are also reported from the Annapolis 

 Valley, Nova Scotia, by Mr. S. C. Parker, of Berwick, and Mr. M. Q. 

 DeWolfe, of Kentville, N.S. ; and in Manitoba Mr. H. W. O. Roger 

 found them unusually abundant at Brandon, attacking currant bushes, 

 roses, choke cherries and the mountain ash. 

 Fig. 6.— Forest Tent ^^ British Columbia these insects swarmed on every hedge and also 

 Caterpillar. did much harm in orchards. 



" Victoria, B.C., April 28. — Tent Caterpillars are hatching and are very 

 numerous. — [R. M. Palmer.] 



