447 



The following meteorological summary by W. E. Barney shows the, cliniatic con- 

 ditions under which the station beets were grown : 



Highest temperature (degrees F.) 



Lowest temperature 



Mean temperature 



Total precipitation (incties) 



Number of cloudy days 



Number of days on which 0.01 inch or more of rain 



fell. 



First frost - 



May. 



77.0 

 :iO. 

 53.6 

 2.73 



8 



14 



June. 



89.6 



32.5 



■59.2 



0.41 



July. 



95.0 



38.0 



68.4 



trace 











Aug. 



96.0 



37.0 



71.2 



trace 



1 







Sept. 



92.0 

 31.0 

 59.1 



0.,54 



7 



6 



24 



Oct. 



77.3 



25.3 



51.6 



trace 



2 







New York Cornell Station, Bulletin No. 33, November, 1891 (pp. 80). 



WiREWORMS, J. H. COMSTOCK, B. S., AND M. V. SlINGERLAND 



(pp. 193-272, figs. 21), — This is a detailed report on breeding-cage exper- 

 iments with a view to discovering a practical method of preventing 

 the ravages of these pests, and the study of the life history of several 

 common species. Previous notes by the author on wireworms and the 

 means for their repression may be found in Bulletin No. 3 and the 

 Annual Eeportof the station for 1890 (see Experiment Station Bulletin 

 No. 2, part i, p. 169, and Exi)eriment Station Record, vol. ii, p. 502). 

 The breeding and root cages in use at the station are described and 

 illustrated. The ex]>eriments reported were in the following lines: (1) 

 Protection of the seed by a coating of Paris green and flour or of 

 tar, and by soaking in a solution of salt, copperas, chloride of lime and 

 copperas or strychnine, or in kerosene oil or turpentine; (2) destruction 

 of the larvse by starvation in clean fallow or in soil in which buckwheat, 

 mustard, or rape was grown; by the ajjplication of kerosene oil, kero- 

 sene emulsion, crude petroleum (pure and as an emulsion), poisoned 

 dough, or bisulphide of carbon; and by the use of the fertilizers — salt, 

 kainit, muriate of potash, lime, chloride of lime, or gas lime; (3) destruc- 

 tion of pup8B and adults (click beetles) by fall plowing or by trapping. 



Coafinff seed earn with Parh f/reen nnd Jfour {\^\^. 200-203). — Credit for 

 suggesthig this method is given to C. H. Fernald, Ph. I)., who proposed 

 it in connection ^vith notes on Aphodius granarius in the Annual Ee])ort 

 of the Massachusetts Hatch Station for 1888 (see Experiment Station 

 Bulletin No. 2, part i, p. 91). In experiments covering 2 years "the only 

 apparent result of such coating was to retard the sprouting of the seeds. 

 When wireworms did eat seed thus coated they did not appear to be 

 injuriously affected by the poison." 



Coating seed corn tcith tar (pp. 203-205). — The results of the different 

 experiments varied considerably, but in general they show — 



That sometimes larvte will attack seed corn even when it is completely coated 

 with tar. In actual practice but few of the kernels would get a complete coat; it 

 requires considerable disagreeable labor to apply the coating; germination is con- 

 siderably retarded, even when the kernel has been previously soaked in water; and 

 corn thus treated can not be readily used in a planter. 



