34 THE REPOET OF THE No. 36 



Tpie Development of Applied Entomology in the Provinces. 



It is natural that the study of insects affecting agriculture, using the term 

 85 I do in its widest and inclusive sense, should develop early and make the most 

 progress in these provinces in which agricultural methods and practice were most 

 advanced. Accordingly, in tracing the early development of aipplied Entomology we 

 have seen that it had its birth in Ontario, and forty years ago could be said to have 

 been a sturdy though solitary infant. I now propose to trace tlie development and 

 to give briefly the present status of applied entomology in the various provinces 

 of the Dominion. We shall find that the impetus to the development of Entomo- 

 logical work in the provinces, as in the Dominion, has been largely due to the 

 necessity of combating serious insect pests which have set foot in the country. 



Ontario. 



The early history of applied entomology in Ontario has been given, as it 

 alone constitutes the earlier work in Canada. Such advances as were made on 

 the science were entirely due to the activities of our society and of its members. 

 When the headquarters of the society were removed to the Ontario Agricultural 

 College additional stimulus was undoubtedly given to the work of the College in 

 applied entomology. The Entomological Department of the Ontario Agricul- 

 tural College has always combined with its function as an educator of the agricul- 

 tural student the duty of assisting that wider circle of students, the farmers and 

 fruit growers of Ontario, in solving their entomological problems. In this latter 

 respect it has been virtually, and still is, the entomological bureau of the Provin- 

 cial Department of Agriculture. This is certainly the case in so far as the investi- 

 gations of insect pests and the assisting of the agriculturists and fruit growers are 

 concerned. 



Sheer necessity has also helped to develop the entomological work in the 

 Province, and we shall find the same to be true not only in this Province, but in 

 all the provinces in which the control of insect pests is undertaken by the Govern- 

 ment, and the same applies to the Dominion. In fact, it is the outstanding feature 

 of the origin of government entomological work that is forced upon the govern- 

 ment from the outside usually by an exceptionally serious outbreak, or by the in- 

 troduction or threatened introduction of an insedt, the seriousness of which has 

 been demonstrated by previous experience elsewhere. The 'most notable example 

 is the San Jose Scale, which has been the original cause of most of the legislative 

 measures in the United States and Canada, 



Following the discovery of the San Jose Scale in Ontario in 1897, the Provin- 

 cial Government passed an Act forbidding the importation of infested plants and 

 providing for the inspection of orchards and destruction of infested trees. As a 

 result of the drastic steps which were necessarily involved in enerofetically carrying 

 out this Act opposition was created,' but a Commission of Inquiry supported' the 

 policv of the Government, and a further Act was passed in 1809 providing for the 

 fumigation of nurserv stock and the inspection of nurseries. This work was at 

 first under the direction of the Professor of Entomology at the Ontario Agricul- 

 tural College (t;hen Prof. 'Wm. Lochhead), whose skilful management did much 

 to prevent the spread of the scale in those early days. The Fruit Pest Act was 

 passed in and was amended in 1912.' This Aot is administered by the Fruit Branch 

 of the Ontario Department of Agriculture. So that the entomological work is now 



