409 



I have just answered a letter from H. E. Van Deman, esq., on this subject, and I 

 trust your Department will make every effort to introduce the Blastophaga here, as 

 it is the only link wanting to successfully produce the Smyrna fig in this country. 

 I have been in correspondence with R. J. Van Leup, Dutch consul at Smyrna, now 

 deceased, but he informed me that he could not discover where the insect hibernated 

 and therefore could not introduce any into this country. Dr. H. H. Behr, vice-presi- 

 dent of the Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, who has taken a deep interest ia 

 the fig question, has discovered, with the assistance of Mr. Braudagee, who has lately 

 been traveling in South America, both the wild fig and also the Blastophaga, of a 

 different family, however, than found in Smyrna. If your Department does not suc- 

 ceed in introducing the insects, we have, I think, some chance of bringing them here 

 in good condition, the journey not being so long and hazardous as from Smyrna. 

 The insects should not arrive before the middle of June or the first of July, as the 

 wild fig does not set fruit before June 1 and does not ripen its fruit before July 1, 

 this being the time when the Smyrna fig is ready to receive the pollen. Any further 

 information desired by your Department will be cheerfully given. — [George C. Roe- 

 ding, Fresno, California, November 29, 1890. 



Reply. — I am much pleased to learn of your success in growing the Capri fig in 

 California, and beg to assure you that this Department will do everything in its 

 power to introduce the Blastophaga into this country. Your nursery will undoubt- 

 edly be very well adapted to the purpose, and if success follows our effort a supply 

 will be immediately forwarded to you. I note what you say in regard to the proper 

 season of the year, and any additional suggestions which you care to make will be 

 acted upon. — [December 10, 1890.] 



The Cabbage Worm Disease. 



In the November number I was glad to see a report from Prof. Herbert Osborn, on 

 the use of contagious diseases in contending with injurious insects. In 1883 my atten- 

 tion was called to the disease (Muscardine) affecting the Cabbage Worm, by Prof. S. 

 A. Forbes, who sent me specimens of the diseased worms, from which I succeeded in 

 propagating the disease among the healthy worms on my cabbages, and which spread 

 rapidly over all the cabbages in my yard. I also succeeded in introducing the disease 

 among the worms in two other yards. Before that time the disease had not been ob- 

 served in this locality. I preserved a quantity of the diseased worms in a dry state 

 in a closely sealed box, and on July 20, 1884, 1 powdered the dry remains of the worms 

 in the box and sprinkled it ona head of cabbage infested with the worms. In four days, 

 on the 24th, the disease began to show itself on the worms, but I found no dead ones 

 until the 28th, when it had affected nearly all the worms on the head on which I had 

 applied it. After- emptying the box in which I had kept the dead worms, I put in a 

 number of healthy worms with fresh leaves of cabbage, and in 5 days the disease 

 had begun to show itself on nearly all of them. I did not find the disease on any 

 other cabbages in the yard until the 2d of August, when I noticed it on plants ad- 

 joining the one where it first started and on which I had sprinkled the contents of 

 the box, and in a few days it spread over the entire yard. In 1885 I had cabbages 

 on the same ground as the year before the larvae commenced their depredations. A 

 little later I first noticed them on the 25th of July, and on that day found one that 

 was affected with the disease. By August 10 it had spread over the entire lot. My 

 notes for 1886-'87-'88 are lost. 



In 1889 the disease was first observed September 5, when it spread rapidly, and by 

 the 15th I could find only a very few recently bached worms unaffected. August 24, 

 1890, I found the first diseased worms. On September 4 I sent a number of diseased 

 specimens to Dr. A. P. Buatts, Shreveport, Louisiana, as he was desirous of trying 

 its introduction on the cotton bollworm. On September 15 the disease had de- 

 stroyed all the worms on my cabbage, and although many of them had been badly 



