96 THE EEPOET OF THE Xo. 36 



Mr. Strickland: We tried using the juice of both oranges and lemons when 

 poisoning in the trench, but found tli.at since the bait was not in competition with a 

 growing crop there was no necessity to use it ; and as a general rule we found that 

 the fruit juices made Tcry little difference. We have been using a series of cages 

 sunk into the ground over a growing crop, 9 feet square, so that we can put in 

 each a certain number of cutworms, apply poisoned baits, and tell exactly what our 

 poisons are doing. We did some forty or fifty experiments in them this year with 

 various poisoned; baits, and generally about three days afterwards we would recover 

 all of the larvae, living or dead, from the soil, and in that way we were able to tell 

 the relative values of the baits used. Here also we find that fruit juice has very 

 little beneficial effect, and that cane molasses is very much inferior to beet molasses. 



Mr. AVinn : I would like to ask Mr. Strickland about the first stage of the 

 insect, namely, the egg-stage. When the eggs were found were they attached in 

 any way? 



Mr. Strickland : We never found more than three together. 



j\Ir. Wixx: Did you notice where they were laid? 



Mr. Strickland : Of course we disturbed them when we examined them, but 

 we found that particles of earth were attached all around them, and therefore we 

 concluded that they were laid in the soil rather than on the soil. 



Mr. Winn: I have examined several of the eggs and it was very peculiar the 

 way they were laid. 



Mr. Strickland : Our examination of vegetable matter lias been naturally far 

 more thorough than that of the soil, and we have never found them on vegetation, 

 so that we are rather forced to the conclusion that they are laid in the soil. 



The President: Perhaps Mr. Gibson would have some remarks to make on 

 this subject. 



Mr. Gibson : I am afraid I can add very little to what Mr. Strickland has 

 already said. He seems to be working under conditions peculiar to Southern Al- 

 berta. In the East, here, we frequently find the eggs of 'Cutworm moths laid on 

 leaves, and even on the stems of trees, but we have not ourselves, as Mr. Strick- 

 land has, located any eggs in the soil in eastern Canada. In the case of the 

 Variegated Cutworm, which was so abundant in British Columbia in 1900, the eggs 

 Avere laid on the leaves and stems of trees, windows, verandahs, and even on clothes 

 hanging out to dry. In regard to the control of cutworms in the East, we this year 

 used the locust poisoned bran formula with good results. Twenty pounds of this, 

 if spread properly, is sufficient for two or three acres. 



Mr. Criddle : I would like to say that I have also been carrying on a few in- 

 vestigations in Cutworms during the past season, and I found that market gardeners 

 near Winnipeg had very little faith in oranges or lemons. They had remarkable 

 success by using both bran and shorts (the majority were in favour of shorts) and 

 just molasses in addition, and my results seemed to bear out what they said. 



Mr. Tothill : I would like to ask Mr. Strickland if in connection w^ith the 

 Noctuids there is any special machinery in connection with any of the ovipositors 

 for laying eggs beneath the soil ? 



Mr. Strickland: Whenever we disturl^ed moths in the day time they were 

 always beneath clods and so beneath the soil. 



Mr. Wilson : I would like to ask Mr. Strickland about what time the Cutworms 

 appeared in Alberta this summer? 



Mr. Strickland: They appeared as soon as the frost was out of the ground, 

 tlie very first record being of larvai attracted to light at the Provincial Jail on April 



