48 G 



alarm, while some damage had been done to some j^oung vineyards iu 

 the Brown's Valley irrigation district iu Yuba County. The bran ar- 

 senic mash, which we recommended in our 1885 report, is being exten- 

 sively used, and Mr. Harnej^ reports that it works to perfection, but 

 takes several hours to do its work. The Commission has printed a little 

 slip, giving an account of this remedy, for general distribution. The 

 commission also advises spraying trees about which it would not be 

 safe to use the mash with a preparation consisting of one pound of 

 buhach, three pounds of glucose, to ten gallons of water. The solution 

 should be sprayed upon the trees late at night, and when the locusts fall 

 to the ground stupefied by the buhach they should be gathered up and 

 destroyed. In the case of very young vineyards plowing under so that 

 the vines are covered with a thin coating of earth will save them, and 

 in the course of a few weeks they will send up new shoots. Covering 

 the young vines with paper-bags has been tried, but in many instances 

 the locusts ate through the paper and reached the plants. 



The Pacific Rural Press of May 30 contains a rather lengthy article 

 upon the invasion of the present year. The insect is said to be present 

 in considerable numbers through portions of the lower country of the 

 Sierra Nevada foothills. Standing grain is being cut for hay to save 

 it from the hoppers, and it is feared that as the fields are thus cleared 

 the locusts will have gained their wings and will be able to fly to the 

 vineyards and orchards of the adjacent regions of the foot-hills or to 

 descend like a scourge to the valleys below. The methods of fighting 

 the insect are given in brief, and an account of the bran arsenic mash 

 remedy just mentioned is published. 



HOP LICE ON THE rACIFIC COAST. 



Mr. F. L. Washburn, Entomologist of the Oregon Experiment Sta- 

 tion, contributes an interesting summary of the work which he has 

 done the present season upon these insects to the columns of the North 

 Pacific Rural Spirit of May 21. He summarizes the now well- 

 known life history of the insect, and states that it has been more abun- 

 dant in Washington than in Oregon. Individual losses during 1890 

 ranged from $100 to $5,000. When the yards have been more or less 

 shut in by timber or from other causes were so situated that but little 

 sun and breeze entered, they were more badly affected than yards in 

 more exposed situations. The eggs and the early generations of the 

 lice were not found upon the Italian prune and very few were found 

 on any variety of the cultivated plum or prune. Even the Damson is 

 said to have been exempt, while Peterson's seedling or Peterson's 

 Drupe has been found to harbor many eggs, and the Jelfersou and the 

 variety known as the Helen pluui come in for quite a share. Professor 

 Washburn recommends that the wild-plum thickets or seedlings be at 

 once removed. He adopts our recommendation to burn the vines 

 immediately after picking, and also recommends the use of caustic 



