1902 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 83 



As a consequence of the wet season, Sings have been more abundant than usual, and several 

 complaints have been received of their injuries to root crops and various garden plants. These 

 molluscs are seldom troublesome, except in damp places or in wet seasons. The best remedj' is 

 to dust plants lightly for three or four consecutive evenings, just at dew fall, with freshly slaked 

 lime, which adheres to the viscid coating of the slugs, and causes them great discomfort, as is 

 shown by the copious out-pouring of the slimy secretion. After two or three applications the 

 animal loses the power of producing slime and dies. The lime has no injurious effect on plants 

 and indeed is beneficial on many lands. When these creatures, as is sometimes the case, give 

 trouble in greenhouses, lime or salt may be dusted between the tlower pots on the benches ; a 

 good bait which attracts slugs and snails very much, is bran damjjed sufficiently to make it ad- 

 here. A very small quantity of Paris green may be added to this and will soon clear out the 

 marauders. In greenhouses the poisoned bran or oat-meal may be placed on slips of glass, 

 which can be put out at night and removed during the day. 



Fbuit Crops. 



The fruit crops of the province have been on the whole satisfactory, although irregular. In 

 some places heavy yields were secured, but in others there was a shortage. The ordinary insect 

 enemies have been less abundant than for many years, but fungous diseases, particularly the Black 

 Spot of the Apple, have caused loss in most districts, and in a few places the Sooty fungus, Lnb- 

 rella pomi, has appeared. This produces on some varieties, particularly Rhode Island Greenings, 

 an unsightly appearance which is known in the trade under the name of " Clouded Fruit.' 

 There has been a remarkable absence of injury from the Codling Moth, Cankerwoi'ms and Tent 

 Caterpillars. Plums are reported as a light yield, owing to late spring frosts and excessive 

 rain. Where spraying has been neglected, great injury has been done by the Plum Curoulio 

 and the Plum Rot has been more prevalent than for many years. This fungus every year 

 destroys enormous numbers of peaches and plums, and the dried mummified fruit may 

 frequently be seen in orchards otherwise well cared for. It is a most important part of the 

 remedy for this disease, to gather, from the ground when they fall and from the trees after 

 they have dried up, the diseased fruits, because in these is found the most fertile source of 

 infestation of the crop of the following year. All should be burnt before the spring opens,and 

 the trees should be sprayed carefully just after blossoming with poisoned Bordeaux mixture, 

 which will have the double effect of checking the fungus and preventing injury by the Plum 

 Curculio. The absence of so many of the regular enemies of the orchard must be due in a 

 large measure to the season, but also certainly to the increasingly large number of fruit growers 

 who now carry on their work in a scientific practical manner, spraying thoroughly and using 

 the remedies which experience has shown are the proper ones for the different pests. The 

 word "spraying ", however, to many who endeavor to practise this operation, has still little 

 more meaning than doing something, in any sort of a way, to fruit trees with a spraying pump. 

 It cannot be too often insisted upon, that spraying is the operation of applying by means of a 

 force pump and spraying nozzle a special liquid m.ixture, which varies according to the habits 

 of the insect to be treated, with such force as to break up the liquid so thoroughly that it falls 

 upon the plants treated as an actual mist or spray. Such terms as "sprinkling" and 

 " showering*' are inaccurate for the operation intended. Undoubtedly, much of the so-called 

 spraying, as usually done, would be more accurately designated by these terms which describe 

 a much less careful and less even distribution of liquids. The Eye-spotted Bud-moth has been 

 rather troublesome in apple and plum orchards, particularly in the eastern counties and down 

 through the Maritime Provinces. 



The subject of the injurious Scale Insects of the orchard, to which so much attention has 

 been directed of recent years, owing to the unfortunate introduction into our province of the 

 San Jose scale, has done much to show the value of a practical knowledge of Entomology. 



