;THE EEPOET OF THE No. 36 



THE 1914 OUTBREAK OF THE AEMY WORM IN CANADA.* 



Artpiur Gibson, Chief Assistant Entomologist, Department of Agriculture, 



Ottawa. 



Farmers in many parts of Canada, particularly in the south-western portions 

 of the Province of Ontario, will long remember the devastating hordes of the 

 cutworm-like caterpillars of the Army-worm, Cirphus (Leucania) unipunctd. 

 which appeared in their fields in the latter half of July and the first part of 

 August of the present year. The outbreak was very similar to that which occurred 

 in Ontario in the year 1896, when 39 counties and 118 townships were infested. 

 Jn the same Province, during the present year, 43 counties and districts reported 

 Army-worms, 234 townships being infested. In many of these, however, the 

 infestation was light, and at such points apparently little damage was done. 



Fig. 9. — Army-worms in trench, Carp, Ont., July 21, 1914. This trench should have 



i)een deeper (Original). 



Fortunately, too, the caterpillars appeared at a time when many fields of grain, 

 such as oats and barley, were approaching maturity, owing largely to the dry 

 season which forced the growth. 



In Ontario, the following counties and districts were infested: Essex, Kent, 

 Lambton, Elgin, Middlesex, Huron^ Bruce, Perth, Norfolk, Oxford, Waterloo, 

 Wellington, Grey, Dufferin, Simcoe, Peel, Halton, Wentworth, Brant, Haldimand, 

 Welland, Lincoln, York, Ontario, Durham, Victoria, Northumherland, Peter- 

 borough, Muskoka, Parry Sound, Nipissing, Algoma, Manitoulin, Hastings, Prince 

 Edward, Lennox, Renfrew, Lanark, Leeds, Grenville,- Carleton and Temiskaming. 



The Ontario outbreak of the Army-worm was investigated chiefly by Mr. H. 

 F. Hudson, Field Officer of the Branch, who conducted a vigorous campaign in 

 Brant and Oxford counties where much of the chief damage took place. Mr. 

 Hudson worked jointly with Mr. A. W. Baker, of the Ontario Agricultural College, 

 and the various Ontario District Agricultural Representatives, and for such co- 

 operation the Entomological Branch of the Dominion Department of Agriculture 

 is grateful. 



*This is discussed in full in a bulletin on the Army-worm soon to be issued by the 

 Entomological Branch of the Dominion Department of Agriculture. 



