1906 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 83 



ent writers. Probably tbe factor of most importance was cold, windy 

 weather at tbe time of blooming. Sweet cherries were much reduced by 

 winter killing of the buds, and by the falling of the fruit after setting. 

 Sour cherries gave an excellent crop free from insect injury. Small fruits 

 were abundant with the exception of strawberries, which were very much 

 winter killed in the eastern end of the province. 



The Codling Moth was more complained of than for many years, and 

 where spraying was not resorted to the loss was great. In western Ontario, 

 apple growers are now recognizing that they must both spray and band 

 their trees to prevent loss, and moreover that this work must be persisted in 

 and carefully done year after year. Banding the trees alone is useless, 

 unless the cocoons of the caterpillars which have resorted to them for spin- 

 ning up are removed or crushed at short intervals. The bands should be 

 put on from the middle of July, and examined at least once a week until 

 no fresh cocoons can be found. The irregularity of development in the 

 Codling Moth makes it sometimes difficult for fruit growers To understand 

 the true nature of this insect. In the eastern part of the province there is 

 normally only one brood of this insect, whereas, in the west, there are two. 

 There are, however, always a few individuals of each brood which behave in 

 an exceptional manner. Of a large number of caterpillars of the Codling 

 Moth collected at Ottawa in July, 1905, a few emerged the same summer, 

 and would in a state of nature have given a second brood of larvae. By far 

 the larger proportion of the brood, however, behaved in the normal way, and 

 went over the winter as larvae. Just at the time of spinning up, there were 

 three or four days of excessively hot weather, which may have been the cause 

 of some of the caterpillars producing moths the first summer. Several of the 

 moths emerged at the proper time the next spring; but a small proportion 

 of the larvae are actually still unchanged in their cocoons at the present 

 time, (December 1906), and as they are healthy they will probably emerge 

 next year, thus showing that of the same brood some emerged as moths 

 within a few weeks of the time of spinning up, while others treated in 

 exactly the same way could remain in the cocoon for very nearly two years. 

 In coming to a decision as to the number of normal broods of an insect, a 

 matter of great importance in devising remedies, it is therefore necessary 

 to take a general view of the facts, and not come to conclusions from excep- 

 tional variations in habit. 



The Plum Curculio was exceedingly destructive to apples in many parts 

 of Ontario and Quebec provinces during the past summer. Some apples 

 sent from a locality near Toronto contained three or four grubs to each 

 apple. The apples were seen to be falling to an unusual extent towards 

 the end of June, and were sent for examination as to the cause of this 

 dropping. The grubs of the Plum Curculio leave the apples during 

 the month of July, and change to pupse in the ground, the beetles emerging 

 a few weeks later in August and September, and passing the winter as beetles. 

 Good results, as far as the insect is concerned, have been secured by plough- 

 ing up sod in infested orchards at the end of July or early in August. If 

 there were any anxiety as to stimulating too late a growth of the trees by 

 the practice, it might be offset to a large measure by sowing the land at 

 once to a cover crop to absorb soil moisture, the object of the ploughing 

 being to break up the cells in which the delicate and soft pupae are con- 

 tained, so that many of them might be crushed or injured by the operation 

 or might be exposed to their bird and insect enemies. The remedy in Can- 

 ada which has given the best results against the Plum Curculio, and which 

 is decidedly the most economical of those usually recommended, is the 



