226 



EXPERIMENTAL FARMS. 



CERTHALS. 



There was not during the past summer any widespread or very serious injury 

 to grain crops by insect enemies. Notwithstanding that in the province of Ontario 

 large areas of fall wheat were ploughed down as being "winter-killed," the crop proved 

 of good quality and an average yield. It is highly probable, from the reports that have 

 since come in from the districts where this winter killing prevailed, that some of the loss, 



at any rate, was due to the attacks of the 

 Hessian Fly (Cecidomyia destructor, Say j, Fig. 

 1. Actual reports mention this insect only in 

 Prince Edward Island and the western part of 

 Ontario. In this latter section, however, thei e 

 is decided evidence that the Hessian fly is in- 

 creasing, and it is well for farmers to recognize 

 tliis and adopt the well known methods for 

 preventing its injury. In October last Prof. J. 

 H. Panton, of the Ontario Agricultural College 

 and Director of the Committee on Economic 

 Botany and Entomology of the Ontario Agri- 

 cultural and Experimental Union, sent out a 

 list of questions to some of the most prominent 

 farmers in Ontario. One of these questions 

 was: "What are the six worst insects in your 

 locality?" And another: "What new insects 

 are likely to be injurious?" In an interesting 

 summary of the replies to these questions, 

 written by Mr. T. F. Patcrson for the Montreil 

 Family Herald of December 15, 1896, it 

 appears that " forty-three different insects were 

 enumerated. The following list will give a fair 

 estimate as to which are most injurious to the 

 farmer at the present time. The eight worst 

 ones have been selected, as, from the reports, they seem to greatly exceed the others in 

 numbers and injurious effects: — 1. Colorado potato beetle, 39. 2. Grasshoppers, 32. 

 3. Horn-fly, 25. 4. Cutworms, 18. 5. Tent caterpillars, 15. 6. Army-worm, 13. 7. 

 Cabbage worm, 11. 8. Hessian fly, 10." Prom the above, it is also clear that the Hes- 

 sian fly is recognized as the cause of considerab'e loss in the year 1896, and in the 

 answers to the question as to what insects are likely to prove troublesome in the future 

 it is the fifth of twenty-three kinds mentioned, and the Wheat Midge is the sixth. The 

 following letters are from Ontario : — 



"Pinehurst, Kent Co., Ont., 29th June. — In this county the Hessian fly is doing a 

 great deal of damage to the wheat crop ; in fact, many fields are ruined, and, unless 

 something can be done to protect the wheat, we think it a great risk to sow any this 

 fall."— J. T. O'Keefe. 



" Delaware, Middlesex Co., Ont., 2nd Nov. — I am told that the prospects for fall 

 wheat are not good in this neighbourhood, owing to the attack of the larvae of Hessian 

 fly." — J. Dearness. 



"Verdun, Huron Co., Ont., 1st Dec. — Referring to previous correspondence, I am 

 beginning to think that the Hessian fly may be blamable for the injury to my fall wheat 

 this autumn ; and, if so, there is every year here much loss from it. Much complaint 

 was made last spring of fall wheat being killed off after it had apparently come through 

 the winter all right, and I am now inclined to think, since communicating with you, that 

 the Hessian fly was the cause of this loss also. The condition referred to extended over 



CO 



Fig. 1. — Barley stem attacked byHessian fly. 

 2, Showing flax-seed-like puparia. 



