ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF ONTARIO. 93 



am puzzled to know how to deal with these. Can it be done by breaking the sod in early 

 summer, and allowing; the wind and sun to dry out and kill the grass roots, thus starving 

 the very young worms 'I The plan of breaking the ground very late in spring and planting 

 the crop immediately I find often fails of protection. 



In conclusion, permit me to direct attention to the fact that the field of the economic 

 entomologist is but poorly defined. To work out the life-history of a species and study 

 its relations to other forms of life, learn what substances will destroy it, determine what 

 course of procedure is calculated to prevent its breeding, would appear to constitute our 

 true field of labor, but we are e.Kpected, by some sort of magical power, to transform our- 

 selves into carpenters, mechanics, or civil engineers, and devise machines, methods, and 

 all the details of application in a manner to fit the current notions of agriculturists. 



Now, it seems to me that this is not necessarily all applied entomology. It belongs, 

 it appears to me, equally as much to the science of applied agriculture, and I am in favor 

 of giving the farmer the opportunity of putting his own shoulder to the wheel and exer- 

 cising some of his own ingenuity to help himself. Outbreaks of the injurious insects, like 

 the diseases of the human system, are due to certain foregoing causes over which the 

 entomologist has no control whatever, but when the trouble comes we are expected to go 

 out and instantly stop it. You all know how impossible this is, and yet how difficult it 

 is to make people understand the impossibility of it. I think that at present we are 

 doing our whole duty and even more. 



I congratulate the members of this association on the progress we are making. No 

 nation on earth is making or ever has made such rapid advances. We make some 

 mistakes it is true ; who that does anything at all does iiof? Honest errors are not only 

 no disgrace but may be of value to those who follow after. We are profiting by the 

 mistakes of Harris, Fitch and Walsh ; why may not those who shall carry the work 

 forward after we are gone likewise profit by ours ? 



In discussion, Mr. Howard stated that Isosoma tritici occurs outside the limits Mr, 

 Webster assigned it, since it has been found east of the AUeghanies. 



Mr. Forbes remarked that it cannot be inferred that the Hessian Fly is single brooded 

 in a region where no winter grain is raised, on the evidence of the absence of winter ^raia 

 alone, since volunteer spring grain may give opportunity for the breeding of a second 

 generation, and in this connection instanced an observation of his own in the sprint wheat 

 region of northern Illinois, where the fly is admittedly double brooded, but where he found 

 it infesting barley in spring. 



In reply to questions Mr. Webster stated that a difference in the relative injury by 

 Hessian Fly observed by him in two fields was due to the better condition in which the 

 ground was kept in the case of one of them, so that wheat sown late enough to escape the 

 fall attack grew rapidly and went into the winter in prime condition, while in the other 

 field the wheat, if early sown, was infested, and, if sown late, was winter killed. 



Mr. Webster stated in this connection that the fall brood of the fiy scatters every- 

 where for oviposition, while the spring brood does not range widely, but is most likely to 

 lay again on other plants (suckers, etc.) in the same field, 



Mr. Riley asked Mr. Webster to give some account of the actual experiments and 

 observations which had led him to make the statement in reference to the Apple Aphis- 

 {Aphis mali). He had for a number of years known that this species had a summer 

 existence on various grasses, and had been very anxious to have Mr. Webster, while an 

 agent of the Division of Entomology, follow the full annual cycle of development so far 

 as the wheat plant was concerned. 



Mr. Webster said that he felt that his experiments were sufficiently conclusive. 



The fourth session was held on the morning of August IG. The Committee on "the 

 President's Address reported in favor of the adoption of his recommendations and the 

 appointment of a standing committee to present a detailed plan for cooperative work 

 among members and to make recommendations concerning legislation. The report was; 

 adopted and Messrs. Osborn, Smith and Garraan were appointed a committee. 



