222 EXPERIMENTAL FARMS 



4-5 EDWARD VII., A. 1905 



soon as the crop is gathered, and the land ploughed deeply in autumn so as to break up 

 the cocoons and expose the pupse to the weather and their various enemies among the 

 small birds and mammals. 



The Black Army Worm (Noctua fennica, Tauseh.). — This cutworm was found in 

 small numbers at Ottawa, chiefly in gardens and clover fields, but no great harm was 

 done. There was a serious occurrence of the insect at St. Emile de Suffolk, Que. 

 Mr. Elsimere Guerin wrote on May 2T : * This spring I sowed 13 bushels of peas, 

 which have been destroyed by the caterpillitrs of which I send you specimens. They 

 are beginning to attack my oats. Oan you tell me what I can sow in place of the peas 

 without loss ? Also, if there is anything I can use to destroy the worms V 



The samples sent were full grown specimens of the Black Army worm, which is 

 a velvety black caterpillar with red head and l^s and is striped down the back and sides 

 with distinct but fine white lines. The dorsal area i« sometimes more or less washed 

 with a reddish tinge. There is a distinct white waved stigmatal band, washed with 

 yellow and bearing in the centre an irregular black line. The lower side of the body 

 of tliese caterpillars is a dusky green mottled with white. They become full grown 

 about the end of May, when they burrow into the ground and turn to chrysalids, from 

 which the moths emerge in July. In reply to Mr, Guerin's question, he was advised 

 to leave the pea field and see if the plants did not recover, this having been our expe- 

 rience at Ottawa in 1891, when from a field similarly injured a heavy crop of peas was 

 harvested. Later in the year Mr. Guerin wrote to me that he had reai>ed a heavy crop 

 of peas from this field. 



The Cottony Grass Scale (EriopeUis festucae, Fonsc). — ^In the report of the 

 Entomologist and Botanist for 1895, some account is given of a curious scale insect 

 which has occasionally appeared in vast numbers in pastures and meadows in Nova 

 Scotia and Prince Edward Island. From time to time specimens of the egg-sacks of this 

 scale insect on grass (Plate I., fig. 4) are sent in for information, and apparently the 

 species is not uncommon in the Maritime Provinces. During the past summer I 

 observed small colonies in many places, and Mr. "W. H. Harrington tells me that he 

 also found them very abundant near Sydney, C.B. Mr. Charles Myers sent specimens 

 from Lake Verd, P.E.I. , with the statement that in many places, both in new meadows 

 and on old sod, almost every blade of grass had one or more of the scales upon it. 



This insect passes the winter in the egg condition beneath the scales. The young 

 hatch in spring and feed on the leaves and stems of grass. The females become full 

 grown in July, and towards the end of the month lay their eggs in conspicuous elon- 

 gated oval sacks of closely felted downy white threads. As the eggs pass the winter 

 upon the old grass, the burning over of pastures and meadows late in autumn or before 

 growth begins in spring, would be an easy way of destroying this scale, should it at 

 any time multiply so as to become injurious. 



BOOTS AND VEGETABLES. 



Both field and garden roots and vegetables have been to some extent affected by 

 weather conditions in spring, and also have suffered considerably from well known 

 enemies, but in most places they picked up well in autiunn. Eoremost among insect 

 enemies were cutworms, which were extremely abundant and destructive in some parts 

 of the Maritime Provinces, Ontario and the North-west Territories, and also in some 

 places in British Columbia. The Turnip Flea-beetle did a great deal of harm in Nova 

 Scotia, making it necessary sometimes to sow twice and even three timM. Turnips 



