206 EXFEBIMEXTAL FAB MS. 



Aphides or Plant-licr have again this year been conspicuous in orehat'ds. In the 

 Niagara district the Cherry Aphis {Myzus cerasi, Fab.), appeared in enormus numbers 

 early in the season and, although it disappeared as mysteriously as it had come, in some 

 places, in orchards of cherries, particularly the sweet varieties, it did a great deal of harm. 

 Mr. C. F. Purdy, of St. Catharines, this year lost heavily from tliis insect, which in his 

 orchard was far worse than last year. Mr. Martin Burrell, of the same place, writes : " I 

 find in my notes that the Black Cherry Aphis was very abundant on 27th May. Under 

 date of 2nd June, I find : ' Black Aphis breeding rapidly, very few Syrphus larvae or 

 lady-birds'. I have no other notes, but, on the whole, the later injuries were not as bad 

 as in 1897. We used whale-oil soap (1 lb. to 7 gallons) with fairly good results." Mr. 

 R. M. Palmer, of Victoria, B. C, says : " The Black Cherry Aphis was commoner than 

 usual all through the lower portions of the province. It is, too, much more diflicult to 

 kill by means of sprays and is not so much attacked by parasites as other species. The 

 quassia spray No. 2, t found quite effective if used hot, as hot as the hand would bear ; 

 if used cold, only partially so." The spray referred to is given in the useful pamphlet 

 " Insect Pests and Plant Diseases " issued by Mr. Palmer for the provincial Board of 

 Horticulture and is as follows : — 



Quassia chips 8 lbs. 



Whale-oil soap 7 lbs. 



Water • . 100 gallons. 



"Boil the qu;»s:^ia chips in about 8 gallons of water for 1 hour ; dissolve the soap in 

 hot water ; strain and mix both solutions together and dilute with sufficient water to 

 make 100 gallons altogether. To be used with a spraying pump, with as much force as 

 possible in applying. "This mixture is the standard remedy for Hop Aphis, and has 

 given most satisfactory results against other Aphides with no injury to the foliage of 

 the trees treated." 



The Apple Aphis (ApJiis mali, Fab.), like the last named, was unusually prevalent 

 at the time the apple trees were budding and caused much anxiety in Ontario, Quebec 

 and Nova Scotia. The remedies which were recommended were whale-oil soap (1 lb. in 



8 gallons of water) and kerosene emulsion 

 (1 to 9) ; but fruit growers on a large .scale 

 were advised to wait until, at any rate, the 

 middle of May, to see if the natural para- 

 sites did not reduce the plant-lice sufficiently 

 to make remedies unnecessary. This re- 

 commendation I believe from experience to 

 be safe for Ontario, but in British Columbia 

 the Apple Aphis requires treatment as early 

 as it shows itself, for in that province it is 

 Fig. 21.— The Apple Aphis— enlarged. a far more injurious pest than in any other 



part of Cannda, Dr. D. Young, of Adol- 

 phustown, Ont., during the course of some correspondence about an outbreak of 

 Apple Aphis on his apple trees, writes : — 



" Adolphustown, April 20. — It would take about 270 sixty-gallon barrels of solu- 

 tion to spray my orchard, at 2 gallons per tree, so that I should need 1,065 gallons of 

 kerosene and 266 lbs. of soap, besides the expense of labour. The tobacco spray would 

 cost probably as much. I shall be glad to know whether you think it would pay me to 

 spend a couple of hundred dollars in spraying for this pest or nob." 



In reply. Dr. Young was advised to wait a week or ten days, and if the plant lice 

 did not increase perceptibly to do nothing beyond his regular spraying for Codling Moth 

 and fungous diseases. Later in the season, I learned that this outbreak had passed away 

 without doing serious harm to the crop. 



