1902 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



-reminded at the proper time what steps should be taken, and, not only this, but every other 

 •ciiizen ot Canada, whether he knows that he is interested or not, should be made to wonder 

 what all the agitation was about. 



If all seed merchants would, for their own sakes, give the recognized remedy of fumigating 

 |)ea8 with bisulphide of carbon a trial, and sell no peas for seed which they were not certain had 

 been fumigated, and if all growers of peas would refuse and send back to their seed merch mts 

 •every sample of peas containing living weevils, I feel sure that evident results would be seen in a 

 single year. The problem is extremely simple, but it requires perfect co-operation. There are, 

 of course, difficulties to be met, but I cannot yet find any of these which cannot be overcome. 

 The amount at stake every year which runs into millions of dollars at any rate, makes it worth 

 •while for every member of this Society and for everyone connected officially with any agricul- 

 tural institution, to make a great efiort. The state of public opinion at the present moment 

 -seems to point out that this is an opportune time to make this effort. In many disti icts 

 farmers have already practically given up growing peas. There are also indications that, 

 owing probably to the damp cool season of 1902, a larger proportion than usual of the Weevils 

 are passing this winter inside the seed peas and, consequently, could be easily destroyed by 

 fumigating. The magnitude of the loss is now generally recognized, and farmers throughout 

 "the country are in a state of nervous anxiety and ready to listen to and act upon any suggestions 

 which commend themselves to their common sense. 



The life-history of the Pea Weevil is briefly as follows : The eggs are laid on the young form- 

 ing pods by the beetles which have wintered over either in the seed peas or about buildings. 

 As soon as the eggs hatch,thegrubs eat their way through theformingpodandattack the pea which 

 is nearest to them. They penetrate this, and soon by the increase in the size of the pea every trace 

 ■ of the hole is obliterated. The grub remains inside the pea until full grown, changing to a 

 pupa in July and attaining the fully developed condition of a beetle before the middle of 

 August. According to the season, a larger or smaller number of the beetles leave the peas in the 

 -autumn and pass the winter under heaps of rubbish, or secreted about buildings. I think tlie 

 normal way for this insect to pass the winter is inside the seed peas. The important points to 

 remember in this discussion and which induced me to say that the problem before us is a 

 simple one, are the following ; The Pea Weevil is not a native insect, and therefore has not an 

 extensive range of food plants, in which it could live outside the cultivated pea. That plant, 

 which is an exotic, is the only known food plant of the Pea Weevil and occurs nowhere in this 

 ■country wild or even in a spontaneous manner. All plants which spring up in the field from 

 accidentally dropped seeds are destroyed by our winters, therefore every seed sown for a crop 

 of peas has at some time been in the hands of the grower or seed merchant, where it could have 

 'l)een treated by the well known remedy of fumigating with bisulphide of carbon, which for this 

 insect is a perfectly practical remedy, and by a practical remedy I mean a remedy which is 

 effectual, is simple so that it can be applied without any danger of error, and is cheap enough 

 xo make its application a paying operation. It is claimed by some that the chief difficulty in the 

 way of trusting to fumigation as a main remedy for controlling the Pea Weevil is that a suffl- 

 •cient number of peas are shelled out in the field at harvest time to leave insects enough to 

 emerge and infest the following crop, even if all the seeds were treated. To obviate this 

 difficulty, I have recommended a plan which some have adopted to reap their crop as early as 

 possible, as much on the green side as can be done with safety. It is a well known fact that seeds 

 of all kinds reaped on the green side rather than when they are over-ripe, have a higher 

 germinating power. It is certain that they would shell out in the field less, and, if such seed 

 were fumigated at once, the weevils would be destroyed inside them before they had made a 

 very serious diminution in the bulk of the seed. If there should be difficulties in the way of 

 ifarmers themselves trea/ting their seed at once, which however they are quite easily able to do» 



