196 EXPERIMENTAL FARMS. 
vegetables. It is a common grub, but is in such unusual numbers that the poor people 
fear that every vegetable will be destroyed.”—[Mrs. D. W. Macdonell.] 
No new remedies have been discovered for these troublesome pests of the garden 
and farm. The remedies given in my last report have been found very serviceable, 
particularly the poisoned bran remedy, when the material was used either dry or 
moistened. 
Potatoes have been an uneven crop, very good in many places, but in as many 
others, there was loss from neglecting to use Paris green for the Colorado Potato- 
beetle and to spray for the potato-rot. Mr. W. W. Hubbard, of Sussex, N.B., the 
editor of the Cooperative Farmer, says :—“ We had a very wet spring with considerable: 
damp, sultry weather through the summer, and this was very favourable to spore 
growth. Potatoes were early struck withrust. Scarcely any one will use the Bordeaux 
mixture.” This is a great pity, for the results of spraying to prevent the potato-rust, 
which later produces the potato-rot, are so marked that any one who will try a sinall 
experiment, must be soon convinced of the value of this remedy. 
BLIsTER-BEETLES.—The Black Blister Beetle(Zpicauta Pennsylvanica, DeG.) appeared 
in large numbers at St. Denis, Kamouraska Co, Que., on potatoes. Several specimens 
were sent by Mr. J. C. Chapais. The Gray Blister-beetles (Macrobasis wnicolor, Kirby): 
did much harm to potatoes and beans at South River, Muskoka, Ont., and Mr. J. F. 
Sheil, having read in previous reports of the difficulties of some of my correspondents in 
treating these insects without injuring the crop, tried some experiments with the insec- 
ticide “Slug shot,” which he prefers very much to the ordinary mixtures of Paris green 
used for this insect, finding it equally effective, with no danger of injuring the foliage of 
the plant treated. 
APHIDES or plant-lice were very abundant last season, almost everything being 
attacked severely. No specimens were received, but several correspondents refer to: 
injury to carrots by a species of plant-louse which spotted the foliage and stunted the 
roots of the carrots. This occurred in Ontario, Quebec and Nova Scotia. Mr. C. E. 
Brown, of Yarmouth, N.S., reports :—‘ Among hardy vegetable crops there was injury 
and in some cases there was a total loss of carrots from the attacks of aphides. These 
pests were prevalent not only throughout this county, but in the adjoining counties.” 
Tue Carror Rust-riy (Psila rose, Fab.).—Attack.—Early in the season the leaves. 
of young carrots turn reddish and the roots will be found to be blotched with rusty 
patches, particularly towards the tip. These carrots when stored for winter use, 
i ; although sometimes not showing much. 
injury on the outside, may be found 
to be perforated in every direction by 
dirty brown burrows, in which are 
many semi-transparent yellowish mag- 
gots about + of an inch long. These 
\ taper toward the head, where is a black 
hooked tip, forked at the base, by which 
the maggot makes its way through the 
the roots. The puparium is reddish- 
: brown, and the maggots, as a rule, leave 
Fig. 4.—The Carrot Rust-fly—natural size (1, 5,7), and the carrots before assuming this form. 
enlarged (2, 6, 8.) : 2 
The fly and its work are shown very well: 
in the figure (Fig. 4) by John Curtis, which I am able to present herewith through the 
courtesy of Miss Ormerod and Messrs. Blackie & Son. The mature fly is two-winged, 
z of an inch long, bright shiny black, with yellow legs and red eyes. The wings are: 
beautifully iridescent. The winter is passed either as a maggot or in the puparium. 
Miss Ormerod, the eminent English entomologist, who has studied the insect for many 
years, describes the attack as follows: 
“The method of life of the Carrot Fly is to go down into the ground, where she: 
can find a chink or cranny by the carrots, There she lays her eggs on or by the roots, 
maggots are blunt at the tail end, but. 
