197 



wherefromonetoftveoftlie larva?. They were pupatiiigjust at this time, 

 and I found among the material gathered one adult, although very 

 immature. It is somewhat questionable whether any very great dam- 

 age would have been done by the insects, numerous as they were, if the 

 dry weather had not stunted the vines and prevented them from grow- 

 ing as vigorously as they would do under ordinary circumstances. 

 Certain it is that in those fields that were most heavily fertilized, and 

 in which the vines were rank, the insects seem to have done little dam- 

 age, and the tubers that were set were of good size and in fair numbers. 

 The insect has not been heretofore reported from New Jersey by col- 

 lectors and I have no means of knowing just yet how far it is distrib- 

 uted and what measures should be adopted to check it. It will cer- 

 tainly be impracticable to follow the recommendation that has been 

 given, to pull out the infested vines and burn them, because that would 

 mean, in the fields that I examined, that the entire stand would have 

 to be pulled out and destroyed. It is likely that early planting of early 

 varieties, early harvesting, and then destroying the vines by fire will 

 in time reduce the numbers of the pest. 



Altogether the farmers in New Jersey have had an extremely hard 

 time of it during the seasen of 1804; all kinds of crops have suffered 

 to some extent, and in many cases insects which usually do no dam- 

 age have been troublesome during the present year from the fact that 

 the plants have been reduced in vigor by the dry weather. Of this 

 character is the injury caused during the presentseasonby the Hessian 

 fly, which seems to have .damaged wheat to a considerable extent in 

 some of our northen counties. 



Following the reading of his paper Mr. Smith said that the condi- 

 tions of the tree and the insect which he found in New Jersey corre- 

 sponded exactly Avith the conditions described by Mr. Marlatt as pre- 

 vailing in Maryland. This held in the matter of the spotting of the 

 leaves, in the blackening of the twigs and limbs, and also as to the 

 source of the infestation. 



Mr. Southwick said that he had found at Fort Lee and also at Short 

 Hills, N. J., the towers of the Cicada very abundant. He also said 

 that in his experience the tibicen species was vigorously attacked by 

 the English sparrow, without, however, being killed; the birds merely 

 cut off various parts of the insect's body. 



Mr. Davis said that the clover- weevil fungus is not confined to this 

 insect, but will develop in other species, as shown by the studies of 

 various mycologists. He reported that in Michigan it was very effect- 

 ive in destroying the clover weevil larva. He stated also that the 

 clover weevil had only recently been noted in Michigan, but was increas- 

 ing rapidly. 



