188 EXPERIMENTAL FARMS 



5-6 EDWARD VII., A. 1906 



A reference to the good qualities of each of these varieties is made in the Keport 

 of the Horticulturist for 190i at page 121. 



Many experiments have been made to discover a practical remedy for this trouble- 

 some insect, which at different times has done a great deal of harm in Canada. Many 

 J ears ago I suggested covering the plants jiist at the time the beetles appear, with 

 gauze, cheese cloth, or even paper; but these methods all have the very great disad- 

 vantage of excluding the swarms of flies, bees and other insects which frequent the 

 flowers and aid in the fertilization. Trapping the mature beetles when they fly to the 

 plants, it is claimed, has produced good results. For this purpose the pollen-bearing 

 plants should be planted in rows so that they may be sprayed when found to be cov- 

 ered with the beetles, either with a whale-oil soap solution or a kerosene emulsion. As 

 has been pointed out by Mr. F. H. Chittenden, in an excellent bulletin on this sub- 

 ject (U. S. Div. of Ent. Circular 21, 2nd series, 1897), 'for the complete success of 

 this method, it is essential that the non-fertilizing plants (the main crop) should be 

 perfectly pistillate and bear no pollen at all.' 



The Currant Maggot (Epochra canadensis, Loew.). — ^Injury to currants both 

 black and red by the larva? of the Currant Fly are somewhat frequent in the West, 

 and, unfortunately, up to the present time no very satisfactory remedy has been de- 

 vised. The only treatment which has given any results, is the laborious one of re- 

 moving about three inches of the soil from beneath bushes which had been infested, 

 replacing this with fresh soil, and then treating the infested soil containing the pu- 

 paria, in such a way that when the flies mature they cannott emerge. The following 

 letters were received during the past summer : — 



' Rock Creek, B.C., June 27. — I send to-day samples of gooseberries and currants 

 which are affected with white maggots. I should like very much to know what we can 

 do to avoid this pest. Last year we tried spraying with quassia chips and whale-oil 

 eoap solution, from the time the blossoms opened out; but it did no good whatever. 

 The fly seems to lay her eggs when the berry is almost full grown. We have over 

 100 bushes and all are a complete loss. We have tried putting unslaked lime under 

 the bushes, and we keep them well trimmed up ; in fact, some of our currant trees are 

 two and a-half feet high, but all are affected in the same way.' — Mrs. Bart Inghram. 



' Indian Head, N.W.T., July 3. — I send you a few currants to show you how 

 badly affected they are. At least half the crop was stung early in the season and fell 

 off. Those that remain on the buslies, are in the condition of these I send you. In a 

 recent trip through Kinistino, MeKort and the other districts around Prince Albert, 

 through which we travelled together five years ago, I noticed that the currants were 

 all affected in the same way. It would be of advantage, I think, if you could advise 

 farmers what to do to save their fruit.' — Angus Mackay. 



'McLean, Assa., July 3. — I am sending a few currants which are infested with 

 eome insect. They are beginning to fall off now. This is the third year they have 

 been infested ; but I can't fixid out what kind of insect it is, although I often hunt for 

 it.' — W. J. Fanning. 



The maggots are very hard to recognize when at work in the currants, and many 

 correspondents, like Mr. Fanning, have had difficulty in detecting them. They were 

 however, present in the specimens which he forwarded. In addition to the measure 

 suggested above, of removing the earth from beneath infested bushes, it is claimed 

 that much good has been done by. allowing poultry to run in a plantation where the 

 Currant Maggot is known to be infesting fruit. The birds scratch beneath the bushes 

 and destroy lai'ge num'bers of the puparia. It is probable that the eggs are laid by 

 the female flies when the currants are quite small, as freshly emerged flies were sent 

 to me from Vancouver Island under the date May 20. 



