214 EXPERIMENTAL FARMS 



4-5 EDWARD VI I., A. 1905 



Btubble fields and ploughing down all land left for summer-fallow early, so that tha 

 cocoons may be destroyed by the burning or buried so deeply that the flies cannot 

 emerge, are the remedies recommended. 



The Grain Aphis (Nectarophora granaria, Kirby). — ^It is probable tiiat two or 

 three species of plant-lice have been spoken of collectively by correspondents under the 

 name of the Grain Aphis, as there is a remarkable difference in the appearance and 

 colour of many of the plant-lice described in tlieir letters, and very few send in speci- 

 mens of what they consider a so well known insect. The grain plant-lice were more 

 complained of this year in the West than any other enemies of cereal crops. They were 

 exceedingly abundant in many places, and did some harm by sapping the stem and 

 grain and causing shrunken wheat. Specimens were sent from New Brunswick by Mr. 

 W. H. Moore, of Scotch Lake, and reports of unusual abundance were received from 

 several places in Ontario. Nevertheless, there was little appreciable injury to grain 

 crops in the East. In Manitoba and the North-west grain plant-lice were in places so 

 abundant as to cause a good deal of anxiety. Mr. T. N. Willing, the Chief Territorial 

 Weed Inspector, of Regina, reports that the Grain Aphis was very plentiful at some 

 points, particularly north of Wapella, N.W.T. ' They were so abundant on Mr. F. 

 Carr Dufton's farm, Wapella, and that of Mr. W. M. Gordon, Hazelcliffe, that the 

 binder was actually stopped by reason of the canvas slipping on the rollers, from the 

 slipperiness caused by the crushed plant-lice, and these were cleared off from the plat- 

 form by the shovelful.' — T. N. Willing. ' 



' Pilot Mound, Man., Aug. 17. — I send wheat heads attacked by the Grain Aphis. 

 I have a large acreage in which the grain is infested; but the only harm I can see 

 that they do so far is to delay ripening. In walking only a short distance into the 

 standing grain my clothing became covered with these insects.' 



* Aug. 28. — ^The plant-lice which were so abundant when I last wrote, soon after- 

 wards suddenly disappeared. They got wings about August 18 and flew away, I hope, 

 never to return.' — ^Phil. W. Robinson. 



* Winnipeg, Man., Sept. 6. — We send sample of wheat received from a farmer at 

 Wawanesa, Man. You will notice that it is affected by a small insect which is work- 

 ing on the head. The farmer wi'ites : " The heads of the wheat are covered with a 

 small insect of a green and black colour, which seems to be a bad pest. The heads of 

 the wheat are covered with them and there must be millions in a single field. They 

 seem to be sucking out the juice of the straw and the berry.' — W. J. Black, Editor 

 Farmers' Advocate. 



'Yorkton District, Assa. (30.25. 2.W. of 2nd), Sept. 13. — There was an insect on 

 the grain this ySar which, had it come sooner, would have done a great deal of dam- 

 age. There are millions of them on the oats, and I understand tliey are on the wheat 

 also. They cluster around the kernel.' — A. C Gibson. 



So far, no treatment has been discovered for controlling plant-lice on grain crops ; 

 but fortunately, they very seldom affect the output to any considerable extent; for an 

 excessive occurrence of these insects is invariably attended by a correspondingly abun- 

 dant development of parasites which feed upon them. 



The Wheat Midge (Diplosis tritici, Kirby). — ^It is many years since any notice- 

 able loss from the larva; of the Wheat Midge, usually called ' The Weevil ' by farmers 

 and millers, has taken plaae. Fifteen years ago the injury through the country was 

 enormous, but suddenly, about 1889, the insect practically disappeared from our wheat 

 fields. In 1898 a rather severe outbreak — the loss amounting to about 25 per cent of 

 the crop — appeared as suddenly in the Niagara Peninsula, particularly along the lake 

 shore in the county of Lincoln. Nothing has been heard of the Wheat Midge since 

 that time, there or elsewhere, until the past summer, when specimens were sent from 

 the fertile Chilliwack district of the Eraser River valley, in British Columbia. Mr, 

 J. R, Anderson, in his report on the crops of the year, says : * The Wheat Midge 



