200 



EXPERIME2fTAL FARMS. 



" Victoria, B.C., May 18. — Tent Caterpillars swarm everywhere, but as usual a 

 large proportion bear the eggs of parasites 

 {Tachina). I am sending, you a specimen of 

 the Caterpillar with no less than 8 eggs on it ; 

 from this you will see the abundance of the 

 parasites." — [E. A. Carew-Gibson.] 



The specimens represented in Mr. Carew- 

 Gibson's sending were Clisiocampa Californica 

 and G. Americana. 



" Agassiz, B.C. — We have this year swarms 

 of Forest Tent Caterpillars. The hazel, willow, 

 crab apple, birch and alder in the woods, all 

 seem to be infested." — [Thos. A. Sharpe.] Fig. 7. —Forest Tent Caterpillar; eggs and moth. 



Fig. 6 shows the Forest Tent Caterpillar and Fig. 7 the eggs (natural size and 

 enlarged) and female moth of the same. All the Tent Caterpillars resemble each other 

 very much and will be easily recognized from these cuts. 



The remedies for Tent Caterpillars of all kinds are hand-picking of the eggs and 

 young colonies and the spraying of the foliage of infested trees before the caterpillars 

 get large enough to do much harm. 



Cajsker-worms {Anisopteryx). — Two references only to injury by Canker-worms have 

 been made this season ; but I observed while travelling through Nova Scotia in June 

 last the abundant presence of these insects in certain localities. I was much pleased to 

 notice the general adoption of spraying by the leading fruit growers. These caterpillars 

 must be treated while they are young, or the ordinary spraying mixtures are not strong 

 enough to destroy them. 



"Grimsby, May 31. — Mr. Laws has handed me a box of apple boughs cut from his 

 father's orchard near Camden, Ont., where the Canker-worm is very bad. He says he 

 has tried Paris green faithfully without effect. The orchard looks as if fire had been 

 through it in summer." — [L. Woolverton.] 



" Berwick, N.S. — The Canker-worm still crops up in some sections ; an infected dis- 

 trict takes a long time and careful work to clear up. I do not know of any serious 

 losses this year from its ravages." — [S. C. Parker.] 



Shot-borer {Xyleborus dispar, Fab.). — This injurious enemy of the apple continues 



^^ to commit serious depredations in the orchards of Nova Scotia and Prince Ed- 



^ ^l/f ward Island, where it attacks both apple and plum trees. The most extensive 



j9Bv injury brought to my notice during the past season occurred at Grand Pr^ 



'y^B? King's County, N.S., where Mr. George Johnson, the Dominion 



^^W Statistician, found the beetles working much havoc in his own 



^ orchard as well as in those of several of his neighbours. The best 



remedy for this insect is the wash mentioned by Mr. John S. Wood- 



Bho^-borer ^orth, of Berwick, N. S., in my Report for 1894, viz., washing the 



n»t. sittk trees liable to attack three times, — early and late in June and once 



in July, with the following : Soft soap, 1 gallon ; water, 3 gallons ; 



carbolic acid, ^ pint. This same mixture has been used successfully against 



the Peach Bark- borer (PhlcBOtribus liminaris, Harris). 



Oyster-shell Bark-louse {Mytilaspis pomorum, Bouch^). — Every year 

 brings numerous complaints of the deadly work of this enemy of the fruit 

 growpr, and 1897 has been pre-eminently a scale-insect year, owing to the 

 anxiety about the San Jo?^ scale having directed a more than usual amount 

 of attention to these inconspicuous but frequently fatal enemies of fruit trees. 



The best remedies for all scale-insects which, like the Oyster-shell Bark- 

 louse, have only one brood in the year, is to spray the trees before the buds 

 burst, and again in June when the young are moving, with the Riley- pj^ c)_ 

 Hubbard kerosene emulsion (1 to 9), or with whale oil soap, 1 lb. in 2 Oyster-shell 

 gallons of water. In addition, — and tlas is of great importance, — a healthy, 



