63 VICTORIA SESSIONAL PAPER No. 8a A. 1900 
REPORT 
OF THE 
ENTOMOLOGIST AND BOTANIST 
(James Fuercuer, LL.D., F.LS., F.R.S.C.) 
1899. 
Dr. Wa. SAUNDERS, 
Director of Dominion Experimental Farms, 
Ottawa. 
Sir,—I have the hanour to hand you herewith a report on some of the more 
important subjects which have been brought officially under my notice during the past 
season. There is, as in previous years, and as must always be the case, a vast 
amount of material accumulating in the Division which cannot be mentioned in the 
annual report, but which is frequently of use in answering correspondents and explain- 
ing to visitors the work of the Division. 
Since the appointment of Mr. Arthur Gibson as a new assistant, in April last, 
many specimens have been secured for permanent exhibition in the museum. Exhibi- 
tion cases in which the commonest injurious and beneficial insects can be shown have 
been a great desideratum here, a want which is now being filled as quickly as possible. 
Several new cases have been secured during the summer, but when the accumulated 
material has been arranged even these will not be sufficient to display all the specimens, 
and other cases are now being made. 
The experiments in growing grasses and fodder plants have been continued and, as 
in the past, have proved of great interest to all visiting farmers. The Awnless or 
Smooth Brome Grass, which since 1887 I have taken great pains to introduce and 
distribute through the north-western provinces, still continues to give the greatest satis- 
faction to all who have tried it. It isa heavy producer of excellent fodder and hay, 
is succulent, appears early in spring and lasts late into the autumn. It is a free-grower, 
thriving both on light sandy soils and in rich low bottoms. Owing to its vigour and 
free growth, it has been found useful for holding alluvial flats liable to flooding and also 
as a binder of drifting sand. Some two or three years ago a sample of seed was sent to 
Mr. R. J. Bouteiller, Superintendent of Sable Island, off the coast of Nova Scotia, to 
whom it has given much satisfaction. He reported on it last year as follows :—‘ The 
Awnless Brome Grass seed was planted about the 20th May, and I mowed a heavy 
crop in August, much of it headed out. JI am much pleased with it and believe it will 
be a success.’ During the past summer Major F. Gourdeau, the Deputy Minister of 
Marine and Fisheries wrote as follows :—‘ Referring to the Awnless Brome Grass, of 
which you supplied seed to Sable Island, i beg to inform you that a letter has been 
received from the Superintendent of the island, in which he states that the plot of this 
grass is ahead of anything else, and measured on the 27th June between 3 or 4 feet and 
more in height, while timothy in just as good ground was a little over half of that.’ 
Awnless BromeGrass has also given tolerable satisfaction upon alkali patches in 
the west, succeeding better than all other varieties tried. 
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