84 



THE REPORT OF THE 



No. 19 



'.^Mv 



m;: 



This has been brought prominently before the fruit growers of Canada by means of the magni- 

 ficent work which has been carried on by the Honourable John Dryden, Minister of Agriculture 

 for Ontario, through two members of the Council of our Society, Mr. Geo. E. Fisher and Prof. 

 Lochhead, whose eflForts have been well seconded by the nurserymen of the province, who have 

 been most assiduous in conforming to all requirements which the Minister thought it wise to 

 impose. As a consequence of this, the condition of orchards, as far as other scale insects and 

 Tarious other pests are concerned, is actually better than it was before the advent of the San 

 Jose scale. The standard remedies for scale insects, kerosene emulsion and whale-oil soap 

 solution, are now pretty well known and generally adopted. The Oyster-shell Bark-louse, next 

 to the San Jose scale, is the one which does most harm. Where this occurs upon trees in the 

 San Jose scale district, it is, of course, destroyed at the same time as that scale, when trees 

 are treated with the drastic measures which have been found necessary. When trees are found 

 to be infested by the Oyster-shell Bark-louse (Fig. 59), the proper steps to take 

 are to spray the trees early in the winter with a simple whitewash containing one 

 pound of fresh lime in every gallon of water. Two applications should be made, 

 the second wash may be applied as soon as the first is dry. In spring invigorate 

 the trees by spudding in a light application of well rotted manure around the 

 roots, and during the summer spray the trees, at the time the young scale insects 

 hatch, with kerosene emulsion or a whale-oil soap solution. For the San Jose 

 scale the latest results obtained by Mr. Fisher have proved that this insect can be 

 controlled by spraying infested trees early in spring with the California Lime-Sul- 

 phur and Salt wash, which Mr. Fisher has modified — he thinks, with equally good 

 results — by omitting the salt. This treatment must be followed during the summer 

 by spraying with kerosene emulsion. I have visited Mr. Fisher's experimental 

 orchards several times and have seen the excellent results which he has secured ; 

 — -<^^ these are certainly a monument not only to his great perservence but to the fore- 

 Fig. 59.— oys- sight of the Provincial Minister of Agriculture, under whose instigation the many 

 lo*^u8e on'^a *^^ various experiments carried out by Mr. Fisher were made. 

 '™'^' In some orchards at Queenston and Niagara there are some interesting occur- 



rences of the Plum Gall-mite, Cecicloptes pruni, A.m., which are now receiving experimental 

 treatment. The small round galls are clustered around the twigs and increase in numbers very 

 rapidly. The injury to the tree is not very apparent at first, but ultimately the twigs are 

 destroyed. The extremely small mites live in large numbers inside the galls, which are only 

 one-sixteenth of an inch in diameter. There is apparently no opening to them except just at 

 the time the mites emerge. Applications sprayed over the trees have so far proved unsatisfac- 

 tory. Mr. Fisher has tried fumigating with hydrocyanic acid gas, and, although at first this 

 was apparently successful, many of the mites certainly being killed, later examinations have 

 shown that it is not a satisfactory remedy. 



The Grape-vine Leaf-hopper (Fig. 60), has 

 done considerable harm in some vineyards in the 

 neighborhood of St. Catharines, and experiments 

 have been carried on with a view of getting a prac- 

 tical remedy for these troublefome insects, well 

 known among growers as "the thrip. " The most 

 serious injuries by this leaf-hopper are its attacks 

 upon the Virginian Creeper, where used upon 

 houses and arbours. 



The Apple Aphis has l>een rather more destructive than usual, and it has been found 

 necessary towards the end of the season to advise the spraying of trees, when it was very 



Fig. 60.— Grape-vine Leaf-ho))iper, iiuuh iiia.!,'nific(l, 



