232 EXPERIMENTAL FARMS 



4-5 EDWARD VII., A. 1905 



which this caterpillar will be recognized from that of the Cabbage Pionea, is that its 

 head is shining black, while that of the last named is yellowish. 



The moth of the Purple-backed Cabbage Worm is a very neat little species, which 

 expands seven-eighths of an inch. The upper wings are of a strawy yellow with a 

 satiny lustre, and are marked rather distinctly with a hearl/shaped discal spot, two 

 distinct transverse waved Knes across the centre of the wing, the inner of which runs 

 through the middle of the heart-shaped spot, and two l^s distinct lines, one at the 

 base and the other close to the apex. There is also a conspicuous dark blotch bearing 

 a white crescent outwardly, towards the apex of the wing. The spaces between the 

 transverse lines, especially on the nervures, are powdered sparsely with brown scales. 

 The lower wings are silvery white, with a clear, broad black margin and a narrow 

 submarginal line inside this. The fringes of the upper wings gray, of secondaries 

 white. 



The full life history of this insect is not yet known; but it passes the winter as 

 a chrysalis in a closely woven cocoon, to the outside of which many particles of earth 

 are attached. The moth emerges in the spring, and there are probably two or three 

 broods in the season. 



FUTJIT CROPS. 



The conditions affecting the value of fruit crops in Canada during the past season 

 are peculiar. The apple crop has not been particularly large in most districts, but was 

 of exceptionally good quality. Early apples were abundant, but the markets were poor 

 and ' thousands of bushels of fall apples remained unpicked or were fed to live stock.' — 

 (Ont. Crop Rep., Nov., 1904.) Winter apples were rather short in quantity and, not- 

 witbstanding the quality, the present prices are low, owing to the enormous crop of 

 high quality apples in Europe, which discouraged shipments and kept the fruit in our 

 own markets, glutting them and holding down prices. There was an unusually poor 

 plum crop almost everywhere, except in British Columbia, where it is reported "plumg 

 and cherries were up to the average; large quantities were sent to the North-west, and 

 good average returns were realized. Small fruits also gave (xv!C growers good returns 

 this year; raspberries were a fair crop, blackberries good, s^a wherries yielded well, 

 and those shipped to the North-west and Manitoba arrived in excellent condition.'— 

 J. E. Anderson. 



The excessive cold of last winter seems to have affected somewhat nearly all of 

 our fruit crops this year. Apples are everywhere reported as rather small in size. 

 Many varieties were severely killed back on the young wood. The same thing, and 

 to a greater degree, is reported of i)ears ; and this fruit was also injured by drought in 

 British Columbia, and Black Spot and Fruit Crack in Ontario. Strawberry plants 

 nearly everywhere suffered from winter-killing. The heaviest loss to fruit-growers 

 from the winter was in the great destruction of the peach orchards in western Ontario, 

 and in the orchards of Northern Spys and Baldwins throughout the country. Grapes 

 were a fair crop, but where not sprayed, were considerably irgured by Black Rot 

 (Lcestadia BidwelU, V. & R.), the Brown Rot (Peronospora viticola, De Bary), and 

 mildew. 



Injurious insects were fortunately not very aggressive in 1904. There was, of 

 course, as is always the case, a certain amount of damage done by the regularly occurr- 

 ing pests of the orchard, such as Tent Caterpillars, Canlvcrworms, the Eye-Spotted Bud- 

 moth, the Oyster-shell Scale, the Cherry Slug, the Imported Currant Sawfly, &c., for 

 which standard remedies are available to all who wish to use them. These insects 

 give no trouble in any properly looked after orchard, where the work is done syste- 



