84 THE EEPOET OF THE No. 36 



Potato Flea Beetle {Epitrix cucumeris). Extremely abunrlant this year 

 Init is readily controlled by spraying with arsenate of lead. 



Potato Beetles {Leptinotarsa dece inlineaia) . Probably more abundant thi.- 

 year than usual, but late planted potatoes were scarcely injured; in quite a inim- 

 bei- of cases potatoes planted in late June were not sprayed at all. 



Potato Leaf-hoppeh {Empasca mnli). An old pest in a new guise. The 

 potato crop in Western Ontario has been considerably reduced in yield, in some 

 cases 1 should say at least 25 per cent., due to the ravages of this insect. Classed as 

 a new pest by potato growers adequate means of control were not generally known ; 

 consequently the insect had almost its own way. I have had partial success by the 

 use of "■ Black Leaf 40 " and soap, using one tablespoon ful of the nicotine solution 

 to one gallon of water jilus Two oxs. soap. 



THE STEAWBET^T^Y ROO^r WEE VIE IN BPTTISH COEnviBIA. 

 W. Downes. Victoria, B.C. 



Of the many many insects that trouble the small fruit grower perhaps few 

 equal in destructiveness the Strawberry Poot AVeevil {Otiorhynclins ovatiis Linn.). 

 Within the last ten years or so its prevalence in the strawberry-growing sections 

 of the British Columbia mainland and Vancouver Island has been a matter of 

 increasing concern to the planters, and in some of the districts where the industry 

 has been longest established it became a question whether its profitable continu- 

 ance could be any longer maintained. 



In Oregon in 1912 some work was done in the study of the Weevil by Prof. 

 A. L. Lovett^ and notable work was done in British Columbia in 1913 by Mr. P. 

 C. Treherne- who established the main principles for its control. During the last 

 two seasons further studies on this insect have been made by the writer in the 

 Oordon Head district of Vancouver Lsland and some new information regarding 

 its life-history has l)een brought to light. 



The strawberry-growing sections of Vancouver Island are mainly areas of 

 light sandy soil on which the berries seem to do better than on heavier land, 

 though here and there one finds plantations on stronger soil, usually on the lower 

 levels. Cultivation is on the hill system. The worst infestations Avere found 

 always on the light land, the reason probably being that such soils provide the 

 best facilities for penetration by the young grubs. The degree of infestation usually 

 varied according to the age of the plantations, one-year-old fields being fiequently 

 free or showing an average infestation 'of one or two weevils to the hill. Two- 

 year-old fields would average three or four times that number, while the highest 

 numbers were nearly always recorded from three-year-old fields. This is, however, 

 not by any means a general rule, as much depends on tlie proximity of young field- 

 to older plantations and cases were found where one-year-old fields adjacent to an 

 old plantation were badly infested, and in 191S a two-year-old field of five acres 

 was totally destroyed. This field in 1917 produced 2.000 crates of berries; in 

 li)18 only forty were gathered. In this case the owner had been growing straw- 

 berries on his farm for many years until a heavy population of weeviN I ad con- 

 centrated there: moreover, the situation was aggravated by the practice of planting 

 strawberries after clover sod. a proceeding calculated to provide the succeeding 

 berry crop with a plentiful supply of weevils, as clover is one of the crops upon 

 which the strawl)erry root weevil thrives. 



