1902 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 13 



SiJine of the seed merchants fumigate 2,000 bushels at a time by having a properly con- 

 structed building and by putting 20 pounds of bi-sulphide of carbon at the top and allowing 

 it to vaporise, which is easily done. The peas can be left in the sack. A farmer with an 

 ordinary coal oil barrel can put 5 bushels of peas in it and fumigate them by using three ounces 

 of bi-sulphide of carbon, which would probably cost 15 cents. 



At the present time there are very few seed peas imported into Canada ; because our peas 

 are freer from the weevil than they are to the south of us, but directly we put any sort of 

 pressure on our seedsmen, then the peas will be brought in from the other side. 



First of all we want to make it known as widely as we can that it is a serious injury, and 

 then that there is a simple practical remedy, if they will apply it. 



Prof. LocHHEAD : If you compel the seedsmen to fumigate their seeds it will not cover the 

 point, because there is a large amount of seed exchanged among the farmers themselves. The 

 Minister of Agriculture is thoroughly in earnest in this matter. I received a letter from him 

 early in the season, and he wished me to go about it in some way and do something, and of 

 course he will provide the funds. The Minister of Agriculture is a thorough believer in fumi- 

 gation himself, and he fumigates all his own peas, yet chey have weevily peas in his district 

 because the other farmers do not fumigate. 



Mr. Smith ; I think Prof. Lochhead has got the correct idea with regard to this particular 

 matter. Some years ago there was established in Guelph what is known as the winter fair. 

 They established a " block test," that is, they show the animal on the hoof first, and then the 

 animal is slaughtered, and they make another test ; that is one of the best object lessons we 

 have in the country, and as a result of that object lesson the Wm. Davies Company of Toronto 

 say, that in one year the quality of the bacon of this country improved 50 per cent. That 

 was wholly the result of that object lesson, and the work done by Farmers' Institutes. If 

 you can get the Institute men to take up the weevil, I am satisfied, you will influence pub- 

 lic opinion in this country, and you can then enforce any measure with regard to the weevil. 

 I have gone over the province pretty generally and I find that the evil is steadily extending 

 north. At one time it did not go further than Lake Simcoe ; but last summer and the 

 summer before, I found it up on the shores of the Georgian Bay and it was becoming quite 

 as prevalent as in the frontier counties. 



THE PEA WEEVIL. 



By W. Lochhead, Ontario Agricultural Colle<;e, Guelph. 



Although the Pea Weevil (see Fig. 1, p. 4) has been known as an enemy of the cultivated 

 pea for over 150 years in America, it is not a native. It probably came from the East, whence 

 came so many of our cultivated plants, and their insect enemies as well. Peter Kalm, the 

 eminent Naturalist of the last century, states that in 1748 pea-growing had been abandoned in 

 parts of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York, on account of the pea weevil. 



It is apparent that the pea-growing industry in Ontario is doomed unless radical measures 

 are adopted (by the farmers themselves) for the control of the weevil. The pest has made its 

 appearance in nearly every county in the western half of the Province, and in the Lake Untario 

 counties as far east as Frontenac. The more eastern counties and those further north are not 

 much troubled with the " bug." Durham, Northumberland and Prince Edward used to be the 

 "favorite section for growing peas for French and American seedsmen, but the depredations in 



NorK. — The above paper by Prof. Lochhead was not read in connecdon with this diacuaaion, but ia 

 placed here as a matter of convenience. 



