REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGIST AXD BOTANIST. 213 



SESSIONAL PAPER No. 16 



The injury in Ontario is summarised in the following letter "from Messrs. the 

 John H. Allan Seed Company : — 



' Picton (Prince Edward Co.), Ontario, Kovember 19.— The Pea Aphis appeared 

 m K.>me portions of Ontario last year and more largely in the United States, and has 

 done material damage to the pea crop. This season it has done considerable damage 

 m Kew York State, Michigan and Wisconsin. Last season, as well as this, it caused 

 injury in Prince Edward county, as well as in Lennox and Addington. We are also 

 told that it did much damage in Kenfrew county.' 



The looses due to the Destructive Pea Aphis in the Atlantic Coast States have been 

 shown by Prof. Johnson to be enormous, and he quotes from The Trade, a canned goods 

 journal, published in Baltimore, the information that the crop of peas of the Atlantic 

 coast this year will not exceed on the outside one-third of what it was even last year, 

 and continues : ' This is about as serious as it can be, when it is taken into account that 

 it is mostly due to this one pest.' . . . ' With this year's experience, however, we 

 have shown conclusively in our experiments and practical work in the held that this 

 insect can be kept in control to a very great extent if taken in hand in time. In the 

 first place, the peas must be planted in rows 24 or 30 inches apart, and not broadcast 

 or in drills, as is frequently the case.' Many remedies were experimented with by 

 Prof. Johnson, and it was found that what he has called the 'brush and cultivator 

 method ' was the most effective remedy. For this it is necessary that the peas should 

 be planted in rows as stated above, and when the insects are noticed the vines are 

 brushed backward and forward with a good pine switch, in front of an Iron Age cul- 

 tivator, drawn by a single horse. In this manner the plant-lice, which leave the vines 

 quickly when these are shaken, were covered up as soon as they fell to the ground, and 

 a large proportion of them destroyed. The operation was not repeated until the third 

 day, as it usually required over 48 hours to destroy the insects when covered with 

 earth. The particulars are given of an extensive experiment, where a 600-acre pea 

 plantation was practically saved by the persistent and energetic efforts of Mr. C. H. 

 Pearson, of Baltimore. All the methods from a practical standpoint were tried on this 

 place, and it was found that the brush and cultivator method was the most effective. 

 Forty men were engaged, and the 600 acres of peas were brushed and cultivated every 

 third day for two weeks, and in this manner the entire field was saved, nettino- the 

 owner from 25,000 to 30,000 cases of pease, of two dozen tins each. The year before 

 the pease over the same area were broadcasted, so there was no opportunity of fightin^' 

 the pest, and, as a consequence, 480 acres were entirely ruined. Another method which 

 was tried with considerable success, consisted of a brush which dislodged the insects 

 80 that they fell into a pan containing coal oil and water, drawn between the rows of 

 peas. In this way a bushel of plant-lice were caught to each row of peas 125 rods 

 long. Spraying was tested after a thorough trial, upon 100 acres, and all sorts of 

 insecticides for sucking insects were used, but this method of fighting the insect wa3 

 abandoned, because no spray could be found which would destroy a large enough 

 percentage of the insects to warrant the expense of the operation 



