196 EXPERIMENTAL FARMS. 



Through the kindness of Mr. M. V. Slingerland, of Cornell University, I was sup- 

 plied with a number of the Goff tarred-paper cards. These are hexagonal pieces of 

 ordinary tarred building paper, 3 inches in diameter, with a slit from one angle to the 

 centre, where there is a star-shaped perforation to allow the placing of the card around 

 the stem of a young cabbage. These were asked for rather too late in the season to 

 give them a fair trial, but the plants upon which they were tried were well protected 

 by them, and all those growers of cabbages who have used them speak highly in their 

 favour. 



POTATO INSECTS. 



The potato crop in Ontario has been a good one. The seed was got in early and 

 the plants suiJered no checks from severe frosts. The Colorado Potato Beetle was less 

 destructive than usual. Fine wealher at the time of digging, except in some parts of 

 the Maritime Provinces, allowed the crop to be got in in excellent order. There were v^ery 

 few complaints of insects or potato rot. In Manitoba and British Columbia the only 

 adverse reports were from the drier sections, where in some instances the sets had failed 

 to sprout. This was almost entirely where the tubers had been cut before planting. 

 Moderate-sized whole potatoes had given by far the best results. In the Maritime Provinces 

 potatoes were not so favourably reported upon as usual, owing to the wet autumn. Mr. 

 B. W. Chipman, the Secretary for Agriculture of Nova Scotia, in his November Crop^ 

 Report, says : " The potato crop this season, owing to the rains, which caused a great 

 deal of rot, is only 68 per cent of an average, just the same as last year, but the prices 

 have been fair." In Prince Edward Island where potatoes are a crop of very great 

 importance. Father Burke estimates that there was only half a crop. He says : " The 

 crop came up well and showed every sign of being large. The potato beetle came so 

 late that many thought we were going to escape it. The wet early season was against 

 its spread ; later the beetles multiplied fast enough, but were controlled by Paris green, 

 which everybody but those a thousand years behind the age now uses. The potato 

 beetle did no injury to our crop this year." Several correspondents in Nova Scotia, 

 Quebec and Ontario refer to the small losses from the Colorado Potato Beetle, but in 

 Manitoba where this insect is very seldom a serious pest, it occured in injurious numbers 

 in several places and required constant attention. 



White Grubs and Wireworms have been reported as doing more harm to potatoes 

 than for many years, and unfortunately nothing can be suggested as a remedy. In Nova 

 Scotia where wireworms are sometimes very destructive in potato fields, it is a practice, 

 when digging or ploughing up a crop in infested land, to pick up the potatoes 

 immediately they are dug, when most of the wireworms will be taken with them from 

 the field. After a short time, the wireworms will leave the potatoes and, if the crop is 

 gathered in sacks or in carts, when the tubers are emptied out the wireworms will be 

 found at the bottom and can be killed. 



The Four-lined Leaf-bug {Poscilocapsus Uneatus, Fab.). — A somewhat unusual 

 attack on potatoes, which early in the season appeared as if it might prove serious, was 

 by the Four-lined Leaf-bug at Carrville, York County, Ont. Mr. J. Lahmer sent 

 specimens and told of their ravages on some rows of potatoes which 

 he had seen in a neighbour's garden. In acknowledging receipt the 

 usual remedies for sucking insects were given and the life-history of 

 this particular one was described. Later in the season, Mr. Lahmer 

 wrote that the bugs did not spread further over the potato patch, 

 but merely remained on the plants first attacked or on the bushes 

 near by. The owner of the garden when he learnt that they were 

 fined L^-buff"'^' ^ot a new pest lost interest in the matter and neglected to apply 

 any remedy. The Four-lined Leaf-bug attacks many kinds of 

 plants in gardens, having a special liking for sage and mint, currants, gooseberries and 

 several other plants. The presence of the bugs is easily detected by the numex-ous 

 brown spots about as big as a pin's head upon the leaves near the tips of the branches. 



