224 EXPERIMENTAL FARMS 



4-5 EDWARD VII., A. 1905 



Mr, A. McNeill, Chief of tlie Fruit Division, Department of Agriculture, writes 

 on July 27 : ' During my last visit to Prince Edward Island, I saw in many places, 

 particularly in Queen's County, most serious depredations by cutworms. Our July 

 crop reports emphasize this and show that the root crops as well as garden truck have 

 been almost completely destroyed by cutworms. I trust you will be able to think out 

 6ome scheme to help farmers get rid of this enemy.' 



Mr. Saxby Blair, Horticulturist at the Experimental Farm, iNappan, N.S., told 

 me, when visiting the farm in June last, that this same cutworm had done a great deal 

 of damage in his vegetable plots and in the flower beds. I advised him to use the 

 poisoned bran remedy, and he now tells me that, as far as the cutworms are concerned, 

 this was most satisfactory in checking them. 



' Mahone Bay, N.S., June 28. — I send specimens of cutworms which are doing 

 damf.ge here. They cut off indiscriminately all kinds of vegetables. One of the speci- 

 mens sent had just finished cutting off a potato stalk nearly half an inch in diameter. 

 About ten per cent of my peas were taken, and other vegetables were injured. Some 

 of my neighbours suffered somewhat more severely. These grubs, I notice, are becoming 

 more commion. Last year there were comparatively few, and the year before I saw 

 none. Please tell me the species. I don't need other information as I find cutworms 

 fiilly treated in your reports.' — C. A. Hamilton. 



' Tignish, N.S., June 30. — Cutworms are doing much damage in this part of 

 Cumberland County. In my garden, with the exception of potatoes and sweet corn, 

 they have eaten nearly everything.' — G. E. Stopford. 



' Northport, N.S., July 6. — The cutworms I am sending are destroying cabbages, 

 mangels, beans, &c., and are a perfect pest. What can be done to prevent their still 

 growing more plentiful another year and to put a stop to the damage they are doing 

 now ?' — G. Ekander. 



' Forest Glen, N.B., July 1. — I send you specimens of grubs which have given us 

 great trouble this spring in our garden. They eat off the bean stalks just as they come 

 above the ground. After they had destroyed a great many of our early beans they 

 attacked black currant and gooseberry bushes.' — J. Bleakney. 



' Hartland, N.B., July 4. — I am very much troubled this year with insect pests. 

 Many of my plants are being cut off by grubs, and the trouble is general in this neigh - 

 bourhood. In my garden, only cauliflowers and cabbages are attacked; but, with my 

 neighbours, beans and tomatoes are badly destroyed. One man lost half his' beano. 

 I see that you recommend mixing bran with Paris green and sweetened water, putting 

 a little) of this round the plants. Is there any possibility of the plants absorbing 

 enough of the Paris green so placed to render them unsafe for food V — John Barnett. 



' Batiscan Station, Que., July 8. — What can I do to destroy grubs that are eating 

 up my onions, cabbages and other vegetables ?' — M. SissoNS. 



' Trenton, Out., November 11. — The only instance of serious loss from insect 

 enemies during the past season, which has come under m.y notice, was when I was at 

 Coe Hill about midsummer. I learned of the almost total destruction of young cabbage 

 plants early in the season by cutworms.' — John D. Evans. 



* Calgary, Alta., June 20. — We are sending herewith some cutworms which are 

 destroying all plants they come in contact with.' — Hole & Anderson. 



* Blackfalds, Alta., July 8. — Cutworms are very bad here this year. They have 

 even started to eat off stalks of the potatoes.' — E. Dalton Tipping. 



At Ottawa there was again tliis year a veritable plague of cutworms. My assistant, 

 Mr. Arthur Gibson, toolc notes upon some fields which had been treated to save the 

 crops from cutworms ; ajid his observations confirmed us in the belief that the poisoned 

 bran remedy, which I have advised so widely during the last few years, was on the 

 whole the most satisfactory way of stopping injury by cutworms, and is a practical 

 remedy equally applicable for crops growing in fields as in gardens. Mr. Gibson 

 fcund in a field of tobacco which was being rapidly destroyed, that, by the second da.y 

 after the remedy was applied, the destruction of the plants stopped entirely, and dead 



