57 



AUOHERK (A.). Culture de la Vanille ^ Madagascar. [Vanilla Culti- 

 vation in Madagascar.]— Bu^^ Ecm. Madagascar, Tananarive, 

 xiv, no. 2, May 1914. pp. 125-126. 



Apart from the common vanilla pests, bugs are recorded from 

 Antalaha and Andovoranto as attacking the pods and young shoots. 

 One species of these has been recognised as the Pentatomid, Memnia 

 vicina. The only practical control for this pest seems to be fumigation 

 with cyanide. 



Mantle (A. F.). Protection of Birds: Saskatchewan.— ii^ic. Gaz. 

 Canada, Ottavxi, i, no. 6, June 1914, pp. 467-468. [Received 

 16th December 1914.] 



The Useful Birds Act of Saskatchewan gives protection to all 

 insectivorous birds, their nests and eggs. A conservative estimate 

 of the total food of Saskatchewan birds during the spring and summer 

 months is 633,000 bushels of noxious insects and weed-seeds daily. 

 Assuming the feeding period to be 160 days, the birds consume over 

 100,000,000 bushels of msects and weed-seeds, which if allowed to 

 propagate would eventually destroy all farm crops and make the 

 country uninhabitable- 



O'Kanb (W. C). The Apple Maggot.— iVcuj Hampshire Agric. Expt. 

 Sta., Durham, BuU. no. 171, July 1914, 120 pp., 8 pis., 2 figs., 

 27 tables, 7 charts. [Received 29th December 1914]. 



After giving some details of the history of the apple maggot or rail- 

 road worm, Rhagoletis pomonella, particulars of investigations elsewhere 

 than in New Hampshire are given, including those of Ross [see this 

 Review Ser. A, i, p. 403]. The known food-plants of this pest are 

 the apple, both wild and cultivated, hybrid crabs, the haws {Crataegus 

 spp.), which seem to be the original host, huckleberries and blue- 

 berries ; the infested blueberries are Vaccinium pennsylvanicum, 

 V. canadense, V. vacillans, and 7. corymbosum. The three common 

 species of huckleberries in the north-eastern states are Gaylussacia 

 dumosa, G. frondosa, and G. resinosa, a fourth species, G. brachycera, 

 being found in the central eastern states only. The distribution of 

 the apple maggot approximates with the so-called AUeghanian Zone, 

 its greatest abundance and destnictiveness being reached in Maine, 

 New Hampshire, parts of Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut and 

 New York, as well as in Ontario, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. In 

 New Hampshire, where the species is one of the most important apple- 

 pests, infestation has existed in many places for at least twenty-five 

 years. Wild apples are prevalent in the southern half of the State 

 and are usually infested, and of 125 growers who made observations 

 on this point, 103 stated that this was the case in the wild fruit near 

 their orchards. There is no doubt that seedling-apples, especially 

 such as drop and become soft before frost begins, are generally infested. 

 Details of the annual damage and seasonal fluctuations from 1909 

 to 1913 are given, the total damage to cultivated fruit fluctuating 

 from year to year, often in inverse proportion to the size of the apple 

 crop. Extensive tables are given showing the degree of susceptibihty 



(C124) Wt. P8&,671. 1,500. 2.15. B. & F. Ltd. Gp. 11/3. A 



