172 EXPERIMENTAL FARMS. 



rye and buckwheat were below the average. The early summer months were very 

 favourable to growth, but the autumn being rainy and foggy had a bad effect on nearly 

 all crops. 



"Alberton, P.E.I. — The wheat was very badly rusted, totally ruined in some 

 sections, much damaged everywhere. I never remember a season since I began to make 

 observations when the grains were so universally rusted. The Campbell's White Chaff 

 wheat was being pretty generally sown and this kind suffered most, although no kind was 

 exempt. This was all the more regrettable since the whole crop was so promising. Up to 

 the harvest all went so as to cause us to expect an extraordinary return; such a 

 growth of straw and such fine roots we seldom see ; but then came close, damp 

 weather suited to the spread of rust, and the whole province was afflicted with the 

 evil. Besides this we have a short crop of potatoes, and even turnips are not up to the 

 average. The hay crop alone was good, extraordinarily so ; but, owing to the great 

 quantities everywhere available, it sells at only half figures. A very moist season like 

 the past advances growth here in this sandy loam of the island wonderfully, if it does 

 not continue too late ; if it does, all grain crops are subject to rust. There is this to 

 be remarked, which might well be expected, however, that in these years of blight 

 those who farm intelligently, manure and work well the soil, escape very much better 

 than the makeshift farmers. I would estimate the farm crops of the whole province, as 

 follows : Wheat, a quarter crop ; oats, a half crop ; potatoes, a half crop ; turnips, an 

 under crop ; hay, an extra crop." — [Rev. Father Burke.] 



" Pleasant Grove, P.E.I., Sept. 9. — All wheat in this section, with the exception of 

 White Russian, is a failure, with rust, maggots or blight. Harvest is about over with 

 us now, all wheat being housed." — [Edward Wyatt.] 



WHEAT INSECTS. 



It seems strange that there should be so much lack of knowledge and confu- 

 sion with regard to the few insect enemies of such an important ci'op as wheat. The 

 different kinds of wheat insects are few in number and unlike in appearance, but there 

 is no crop with regard to which for purposes of exact identification it is so necessary to 

 see specimens of the pests complained of as in the case of wheat. The words weevil, fly, 

 maggot, joint-worm, rust or blight are made to do service for almost any insect or 

 disease which may occur. The chief insect enemies of wheat in Canada in the past 

 have been the Wheat Midge, the Hessian Fly, the Wheat-stem Maggot, the American 

 Frit-fly, the joint-worms, and the Grain Aphis. There are of course some others, such 

 as wir0Worins, cutworms, and the W^heat-stem Sawfly, which attack the wheat plant 

 occasionally or locilly, but the above mentioned are those most frequently inquired 

 about and which, therefore, are of most interest to wheat growers. 



Vfith regard to Wireworms, which are sometimes the cause of much injury to 

 grain crops, unfortunately it must be acknowledged that up to the present no practical 

 remedy has been discovered. The only agricultural treatments which have proved 

 beneficial are late fall ploughing and sowing infested land to rye or barley which it is 

 claimed that wireworms do not attack badly. 



It may be convenient for reference to give a very brief account of each of the 

 worst pests. 



The Wheat Midge or " Weevil " (Z)i;;^osis tritici, Kirby). — Several small red- 

 dish maggots crowding around the grains of wheat in the ear and pausing them to 

 shrivel. Some of these when full-grown fall to the ground and pass the winter beneath 

 the surface. Others remain in the ears of wheat and are harvested with the grain. 

 The eggs are laid in June among the flowers of the wheat, being pushed down between 

 the chaff by means of the long slender ovipositors of the females. Thei'e is only one 

 brood in a season. 



Remedies. — (I.) Burn all rubbish and screenings from the threshing machine. 

 ■(II.) Plough deeply as soon as the crop is carried. 



