190 EXPERIMENTAL FAllilS 



8-9 EDWARD VII., A. 1909 



DIVISION" OF ENTOMOLOGY 



CESEAIS. 



The season of 1907 in all parts of the Dominion will long be remembered for it* 

 unusual and irregular character. From the Atlantic to the Pacific the spring was 

 cold, dry and very late. Insects of all kinds were exceptionally scarce and the paucity 

 of insect life in April and May had a direct effect on bird life as well as in many 

 places also upon fruit crops. The amount of fruit set was noticeably smaller where 

 there were no colonies of bees kept in the vicinity. The exoeptionally backward 

 nature of the season continued throughout the summer and affected seriously the 

 development and ripening of all crops. This was only partially compensated for by 

 a long open autumn without severe frosts. In the wheat-growing districts the crop 

 was, however, in many places injured by this exceptional season and this was par- 

 ticularly the case in the prairie provinces. 



The grain crops in the Northwest provinces were poor and light in quantity owing 

 to the vp/y unusual season, but the much higher price paid for grain than in previous 

 years brought much money into the country and relieved the farmers from much of 

 their loss. In British Columbia very little spring wheat was grown owing t-o th* 

 presence in previous recent years of Wheat Midge. Fall wheat yielded fairly well. 



The Hessian Fly, Mayetiola (Cecidomyia) destructor, Say, occurred in the Mari- 

 time Provinces in several localities, but only in Prince Edward Island was noticeable 

 injury reported. There is evidence that this troublesome insect is again gradually 

 increasing in Ontario, and as it is working westward in the northwestern United 

 States it must at some time be expected to appear in our Alberta fall-wheat districts; 

 it will be well therefore for farmers to be on the alert and apply vigorously the well 

 known remedies which, briefly, are as follows — 



Late Sowing of Fall Wheat. — This is the most important preventive remedy and 

 means a change from the ordinary farming practice and for this reason it is some- 

 times rather difficult to persuade wheat growers to adopt it. By postp>oning seeding 

 until the end of S'eptember the appearance of the young wheat plants above the ground 

 in autumn is delayed until after the egg-laying flies, which emerge in August and 

 September are dead. The chief objection offered to sowing so late as the end of Sep- 

 tember is that plants have not time to make vigorous roots so as to withstand the 

 cold of winter. This danger, however, experiment has shown is not so great as it 

 appears, and if the land is got into good condition and good heavy seed is sown by 

 the end of September, it will generally give a satisfactory crop. 



Burning Refuse. — Many of the flax-seed-like pup?3 of the summer brood are car- 

 ried with the straw and at threshing time are loosened and fall beneath the machine 

 with the rubbish, or they may be left in the straw. All dust and screenings therefore 

 from the threshing mill should be carefully destroyed or fed, and aU straw and small 

 seeds should be either used during the winter or burnt before spring. 



Treatment of Stuhhle. — Most of the flax-seeds of the summer brood are placed so 

 low on the stems that they are left in the stubble when the wheat is cut. A largs 

 proportion of these produce flies in September but some pass the winter in the stubble. 

 Stubble should therefore be ploughed down deeply so as to place the insects so far 

 beneath the surface that the delicate flies when the3' emerge cannot escape. 



Trap Crops. — A method of reducing the numljers of Hessian Flies which is little 

 practised, but which is spoken highly of by some, is sowing narrow strips of wheat in 



