349 



Close grazing during summer is advisable before ploughing old land 

 as crane-flies are attracted to tufts of coarse grass for oviposition. 

 Birds should not be discouraged during cultivation, rooks being 

 particularly useful in removing numbers of both pests. To ensure 

 quick development, 1 cwt. of sulphate of ammonia to the acre might 

 be harrowed in with the seed. If damage is observed when the crop 

 is a few inches high, a good harrowing with seed harrows, followed by 

 heavy rolling has sometimes proved advantageous. In this way the 

 movements of the grubs are checked and the crop has an opportunity 

 to recover. When oats have been too severely damaged by the end of 

 Mav to yield a crop, the land should be prepared for turnips, or other 

 root crops. After a severe attack by wireworms the land should be 

 ploughed immediately after harvesting, cultivated if possible and 

 again ploughed during the winter. Beans or white mustard are 

 apparently safe crops for wireworm-infested land. Wireworms may 

 give trouble on newdy ploughed land for two or three years and are 

 persistent on some types of soil ; leather- jackets are generally trouble- 

 some only for one year on newly ploughed land. The methods out- 

 lined above have proved of greater value than any apphcation to the 

 soil ; napthahne apphed in quantities up to 5 cwt. per acre did not 

 even appreciably reduce the numbers of either pest. 



Wiltshire (S. P.). The Apple Canker Fungus. — Univ. Bristol : Ann. 

 Rept. Agric. <& Hortic. Research Sta., Long Ashton, Bristol, 1919, 

 pp. 23-29. [Eeceived 17th June 1920.] 



Investigations during 1919 to determine the relation of the apple 

 canker fungus, Nectria ditissima, to attacks of the woolly apple aphis 

 [Eriosoma lanigenim] showed that the cankered areas were always 

 found surrounding injury by the Aphid. It was evident that the 

 canker attacked only Aphid galls that had burst and exposed the wood, 

 which became heavily infested with spores of N. ditissima. While, 

 therefore, the Aphid injury, resulting in the formation of galls, is not 

 directly very injurious to the trees, indirectly considerable damage may 

 be done, as canker frequently results in the death of the branch. 



Lees (A. H.). Woolly Aphis of Apple. — Univ. Bristol: Ann. Rept, 

 Agric. & Hortic. Research Sta., Long Ashton, Bristol, 1919, 

 pp. 46-47. [Received 17th June 1920.] 



Experiments made in 1919 showed that the best way to control 

 woolly apple aphis [Eriosoma lanigerum] with the least possible number 

 of operations is to use a spray consisting of 15 to 20 lb. soft soap, 2 gals, 

 paraffin and | lb. nicotine to 100 gals, water. This is capable of killing 

 the stem form of the Aphid even with no very high pressure, and 

 should be used when the majority of the flower trusses have separated 

 but before the flowers open, that is, about the end of the first week in 

 May in an average season, and, if any insects are still present, a second 

 spraying should be done when the flowers have set. As soon as the 

 spraying has been done, grease bands should be placed on the trees to 

 catch the migrants from the roots that usually ascend the tree from 



