REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGIST AND BOTANIST 171 
SESSIONAL PAPER No. 16 
fall wheat’ that they try this experiment for themselves. They «will at any rate convince 
themselves that chess plants will grow from chess seeds, which is frequently stated not 
to be the case. Several new varieties of grasses and clovers have been added to the 
collection during the past year. 
Insects of the year.—A satisfactory feature of the year 1902 has been a marked de- 
crease in the injuries by some of our well known pests, such as the Codling Moth, the 
Cankerworms and the Tent Caterpillars, through most of our fruit-growing districts. 
Insect enemies which require at the present time more attention than they are receiving 
from the people most concerned, are the following. The Mediterranean Flour Moth, 
although seldom mentioned, is becoming abundant in mills in various parts of 
Canada. Where thorough fumigation with sulphur has been tried and frequently 
repeated, the best results have been obtained. This, of course, must be accompanied 
with scrupulous cleanliness, the mills being frequently swept down, and as small a stock 
as possible of ground grain or cereal products, kept on hand. Opening the mills fre- 
quently to the full intensity of the winter cold, has also been useful in checking this 
insect. The Buffalo Carpet Beetle is extending the range over which it is a troublesome 
household pest. The Eye-spotted Bud-moth did considerable harm in the orchards of 
the Maritime Provinces last spring. In Manitoba, particularly about Sewell Station, 
much loss resulted from neglecting to fight Locusts. The wheat crop of Manitoba was 
in some places rather seriously injured by the Hessian Fly, but the Provincial Depart- 
ment of Agriculture has made widely known the best way to cope with this pest. The 
San José Scale work in south-western Ontario is now beginning to bear excellent fruit, 
in the discovery of what may be called a practical remedy for this terrible pest. It has 
been shown during the past summer that trees which have been thoroughly sprayed 
early im the spring with the California lime-sulphur-and-salt wash, as well as with a 
modification of this, with the salt omitted, and subsequently with the ordinary kerosene 
emulsion, may be kept free from injury by the San José Scale. There is every reason 
to hope that, as this remedy becomes more generally applied, the San José Scale may be 
brought down to the status of an ordinary fruit pest. It will, however, require con- 
stant and extreme care, or the state of the orchards will soon revert to what it was 
a year ago. The San José Scale is still the very worst insect we have ever had to fight, 
and there must as yet be no relaxation whatever in the campaign against it. The insect 
requiring perhaps more attention than any other at the present time, is the Pea 
Weevil, which annually destroys upwards of one miilion dollars worth of the field peas 
of Ontario. I have endeavoured to draw particular attention to this insect with the 
object of inducing all pea growers, whether seed merchants, farmers or private individuals, 
to adopt the well tried and simple remedies by which this insect can be much reduced in 
numbers. There are perhaps more reasons to hope that total extinction of this serious 
enemy might be attained than is the case with many others we have to deal with. The 
Cattle Horn-fly, possibly from the nature of the season, increased noticeably in many 
parts of Canada, particularly in the maritime provinces, whence frequent demands for 
advice were received. Another result of the wet weather which prevailed in most parts 
of Canada, was the somewhat unusual amount of injury from slugs. These molluses 
are not insects, but it is to the student of insects that most inquiries regarding them are 
directed. 
There were no important additions to our list of injurious insects during the past 
year. The incident of greatest interest was the occurrence of a single specimen of the 
Brown-tailed Moth at St. John, N. B., where it was captured by Mr. Wm. McIntosh of 
that city. This is a European pest which, after the notorious Gypsy Moth, has caused 
more anxiety than any other insect in the New England States, excepting perhaps the 
San José Scale. Two fruit pests, enemies of the strawberry, the caterpillars of a geom- 
eter moth, Petrophora truncata, and of a noctuid, Scopelosonea trisignata, probably only of 
minor importance, have been received from British Columbia. These are widely distri- 
buted insects but have never previously been complained of as enemies of the fruit 
grower. : 
