REPORT OF THE SOCIETY 51 



Mr. N. B. Sanson, Curator of the Banff Museum, had conducted some control 

 work but little biological work had been attempted. 



As this latter museum, Mr. Sanson has brought together a general collection 

 of the insects of the Rocky Mountains Park. 



In 1915, Dr. Swaine of the Division of Forest Insects visited the Lesser 

 Slave Lake region in northern Alberta, for the purpose of investigating forest 

 insect injuries. Infestations of the Destructive Spruce Bark-beetle, Dend- 

 roctonus piceaperda Hopk., and the Western Balsam Bark-beetle, Dryocoetes 

 confusus Sw., were located. In the same j^ear the valuable forests of the 

 Rocky Mountains Park, Banff, were examined with a view to furnishing 

 advice on their protection. Special studies of forest insect injury, particularly 

 to pine, were made in 1919, by Dr. Swaine in the Jasper National Park. The 

 trees showed characteristic evidence of mistletoe attack followed by various 

 species of Ips. In 1923, the Division of Forest Insects, reported that the Larch 

 Sawfly had defoliated larch trees west of Edmonton. Correspondents of the 

 Branch also reported injury in sections north and west of Edmonton. 



During the summers of 1922 and 1923, the Division of Foreign Pests 

 Suppression undertook scouting for the Alfalfa Weevil, Phytonomus posticus 

 Gyll in southern Alberta. In 1922, 286 farms were visited and a large 

 number of sweepings made from fields of alfalfa. During the following year 

 (1923), 491 farms were visited and sweepings made from 542 fields of alfalfa. 

 As yet no sign of the Alfalfa Weevil has been discovered in western Canada. 



Natural control studies particularly of the Fall Webworm, Hyphantria 

 cunea Dru., and the Tent Caterpillar, Malncosotna disstria lihn., were laade in 

 British Columbia and Alberta in 1917 and 1918 b}^ Messrs Tothill and Baird. 

 In the latter year, Mr. Baird spent about six weeks in the neighborhood of 

 Sylvan Lake. 



In October, 1923, the Entomological Branch was allotted two rooms in 

 the Post Office Building in Lethbridge. These will be used for laboratory 

 purposes especially during the winter months. 



Provincial 



No official with the title of Provincial Entomologist has so far been 

 appointed. Mr. Donald Mackie of the Department of Agriculture conducted 

 entomological correspondence for a number of years and gave advice regarding 

 the more common insect pests of the province. During recent years particularly 

 in connection with the grasshopper campaign, Professor E. H. Strickland of 

 the Univ^ersity of Alberta, Mr. H. A. Craig, Deputy IMinister and Mr. Z. W. 

 Macllmoyle, Assistant Deputy Minister, of the Department, have rendered 

 much assistance to the farmers in insect control work. 



In 1922, the province passed "An Act to provide for the Extermination 

 of Agricultural Pests." This legislation gave the Department of Agriculture 

 power to take such action as it thought desirable in the control of pests of 

 grain or other crops and a separate part of the Act dealt particularly with 

 grasshopper control. In 1921, a circular on grasshopper control prepared by 

 Messrs. Strickland and Seamans was published by the Department. 



University of Alberta 



Mr. E. H. Strickland of the Dominion Entomological Branch was appointed 

 in 1922, to the newly created position of Professor of Entomology in the 



