REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGIST AND BOTANIST. 163 
SESSIONAL PAPER No. 8a 
CHRHAL CROPS. 
Complaints of injury to the wheat crop by insects during 1899 were few, with the 
exception of a new and severe outbreak of the Hessian Fly in Manitoba, a rather 
serious occurrence of the same insect in Western Ontario, and a slight one in Prince 
Edward Island. 
In the November Crop. Report (Ontario Bureau of Industries) it is stated :—‘ There 
has been a notable absence of insect pests. There are few complaints of insect pests 
except that Hessian Fly, Jointworm and Wireworm have done some damage.’ ‘ Alber- 
ton, P.E.I., October 31.—Seldom has Prince Edward Island garnered a more satisfactory 
all round harvest than this year. Hay is bursting the mows, the granaries are filled 
with golden grain, and although in soe sections potatoes are not an average crop, on 
the whole, we rejoice in an excellent yixld of roots. —Rervp. A. E. Burke. 
‘Pleasant Grove, P.E.I.—The wheat crop on the whole is a good one; some fields 
were damaged by what we call ‘black neck,’ said by some to be the rust. Attacks by 
the Hessian Fly were not common, a few plants being injured, but we have had a con- 
siderable quantity of Wheat Midge on the Island this year..—E. Wvyart. 
Barley was stightly injured by Hessian Fly in Manitoba, and oats and corn in 
Ontario to some extent by grasshoppers. The two most serious outbreaks of the season 
upon cereals were by Hessian Fly in Manitoba and in Western Ontario, and by a new 
enemy of the pea, the Destructive Pea Aphis, which did great damage to field peas 
from the Maritime Provinces to Western Ontario in Canada, and extended right down to 
the Southern States in the Union. That old enemy, the Pea Weevil, was also more 
than usually destructive and abundant during the season of 1899. 
THE HESSIAN FLY 
(Cecidomyia destructor, Say). 
Complaints of injury by the Hessian Fly du- 
ring the past season were numerous to fall wheat 
in Ontario and to spring wheat in Manitoba. 
Wheat was injured in many parts of Manitoba, 
but chiefly in the Red River valley. The 
most western occurrence reported to me (with 
specimens) was from Moose Jaw, in the North- 
west Territories. At the request of some of my 
; correspondents for public advice as to the best 
Fig. 2.—The Hessian Fly—enlarged and means of preventing future loss, articles were 
natural size. prepared for publication in the Farmer’s Ad- 
vocate (September 15) and the North-west Farmer (September 20), both excellent agri- 
cultural journals, widely circulated and read by farmers, in which the chief points in 
the life history of the insect were given and suggestions made as to the best known 
remedies. 
The following extracts from some of the large correspondence on the matter will 
show the extent and nature of the outbreak. The first reports and specimens from 
Manitoba were received from Mr. Hugh McKellar, Chief Clerk of the Provincial 
Department of Agriculture, 
‘Delmer (Norfolk Co.), Ont., August 8.—In view of the immense damage done by 
the Hessian Fly to the wheat crop in this and in many other localities throughout the 
8a—113 
