April, '19] SCIENTIFIC NOTES 219 



A Correction: In the Journal of Economic Entomology, Vol. 11, No. 5, 

 p. 431, I made the statement that I had found the Cherry-Leaf-Beetle, Galerucella 

 cavicollis LeC, feeding on several species of azalea. This azalea feeding beetle, I 

 now find, on more carefully comparing the specimens, is Galerucella rufosanguinea Say. 

 To my good friend. Dr. E. A. Schwarz, I am indebted for calling my attention to the 

 matter. 



Berkeley, Cal., March 3, 1919. Edwin C. Vas Dyke. 



A New Root Maggot Treatment. The soils and climatic conditions of the Pacific 

 Coast are such that most cruciferous crops thrive exceptionally well. Cabbage, 

 cauliflower, turnips, radishes and the like are grown in most every garden and are 

 standard market garden crops; thousand-headed kale is grown by almost every dairy- 

 man and poultryman; and the cabbage seed-growing industry of the United States is 

 centered largely in Skagit County of the State of Washington. These crops are there- 

 fore very important in the agriculture of western Washington. All of these crops 

 are infested more or less each year by the cabbage root maggot (Phorbia brassicae 

 Bouche). The damage done by this pest makes it one of the most important insect 

 pests which we have to combat. 



Each season for many years past experiments looking toward the control of this 

 pest have been carried on at the Western Washington Experiment Station. New 

 treatments tried from year to year have so added to the "found wanting" list that 

 it makes quite an impressive array of blighted hopes. Of the many treatments that 

 have been tried, the tarred felt collar for transplanted crops such as cabbage, kale 

 and cauliflower has been the most effective prior to this season. 



The use of powdered borax to kill house-fly maggots in manure as recommended 

 by the United States Department of Agriculture and the successful use of "green 

 tar oil" in English army camps to prevent manure heaps from becoming a breeding 

 place for house-flies suggested to the wTiter their use for root-maggot control. Ac- 

 cordingly, this past season these two materials were tried along with the usual num- 

 ber of new "remedies." 



The recommended borax treatment to kill house-fly maggots in manure is 1 pound 

 of powdered borax to 16 cubic feet of manure. Based on this recommendation § pint 

 of a solution in which 1 ounce of powdered borax is dissolved in 10 gallons of water 

 should effectively treat 10 cubic inches of soil. This was assumed to be about the 

 proper treatment for one plant. Solutions of 1 ounce of powdered borax to 2^ gal- 

 lons, 5 gallons, 10 gallons and 15 gallons of water were used at the rate of V pint to 

 the plant. The stronge concentrations had a slightly injurious effect on the kale 

 plants, thousand-headed kale being used in these experiments. Some few plants 

 were killed and others were noticeably stunted. These treatments showed practi- 

 cally the same percentage of loss as the checks, so are apparently of no value in the 

 control of root maggot. 



" Green tar oil" used at the rate of 1 part to 40 parts of soil, applied 1 inch thick on 

 maniu-e heaps, has l:)een reported (W. H. Saunders in the 191G Proceedings of the Lon- 

 don Zoological Socicli/) to effectively protect them from becoming a breeding place for 

 house-dics. This oil is a heavy coal tar distillation product known in this country as 

 anthracite or anthracene oil. It is insoluble in water and non-volatile. It waa 

 obtained from Tlie Barret Company, New York, and The Republic Crcosoting 

 Company, Seattle. The latter company reports that anthracene oil will retail at 

 approximately $1 a gallon. 



In our experiment with anthracene oil, soil from the field in which the transplanting 

 was to be made was used as a carrier rather than anything else, becau.'^o in that way 



