40 



Personally, I am of the opinion, therefore, that the Woolly Aphis is 

 not so serious a proposition in Canada, I am sure in our Province, at least, 

 as it was thought a few years ago. We obtained much of our information 

 regarding this pest from the South, in the States or in Europe, where the 

 Woolly Aphis is undoubtedly a serious pest and does great damage, espe- 

 cially in the root form. There the winters are much milder, and the forms 

 might live throughout the entire year either on the roots or on the stems. 

 In Canada, however, it is different; the winters are cold, very cold in our 

 Province, at least, and too cold for any stem-inhabiting forms to live 

 through. 



Now is the question of destruction of the Woolly Aphis an easy matter? 

 Not at all. One may visit the nursery rows even once a week, and still 

 find, some morning, that a colony of winged females have alighted from some 

 elm. For, as already stated, the Woolly Aphis, after having passed the 

 egg-condition and the two first Spring generations on the Elm, develops 

 in the third generation the winged forms, which fly back to the apple and 

 establish colonies there. You will see, therefore, that the whole question 

 of prevention of the distribution of the Woolly Aphis is a most difficult 

 one to cope with. So much so that the State Entomologist of Colorado, 

 Mr. C. P. Gillette, after inspecting one year 36 nurseries, says that he did 

 not find one single nursery exempt from the Woolly Aphis. 



I have had some experience in nursery work for twelve years and I may 

 say that I never have had to spray or bother about the Woolly Aphis in 

 our nursery; so I am right, I believe, in my stand that in our Province the 

 Woolly Aphis is not an important pest, and it is useless to quarantine a 

 nursery on its sole account. 



Of course I am not maintaining the same stand in regard to any of 

 the other pests on the list referred to in the beginning of this paper. It is 

 especially necessary to have the most stringent rules enacted to keep our 

 Province absolutely free from any form of invasion of the San Jose scale, 

 the Brown Tail Moth and the Gypsy Moth. Nurserymen and orchardists 

 are as a whole very much interested, and I may say among those most 

 interested in keeping our Province freed from such pests. And we only 

 have to thank either the Federal or Provincial authorities for the inspec- 

 tion rules they have enforced in recent years. 



But again, I do not place the Woolly Aphis in this class of pests, for 

 the very reason that it is found everywhere already in the Province and 

 it is not a very important pest; and that if importance is considered, the 

 provincial authorities should begin by taking steps to prevent or control 



