REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGIST AND BOTANIST. 171 
SESSIONAL PAPER No. 8a 
‘The growing of peas in Maryland is a very important industry, and reliable 
conservative authorities place the loss this season at $3,000,000, the principal cause 
being the pea-louse. In many cases the destruction was complete, varying from mere 
garden patches to hundreds of acres.’ 
The Destructive Pea Aphis appeared in alarming numbers in the United States this 
year much earlier in the season than was the case in Canada, and consequently the loss 
to pea growers was greater, because in Canadian fields the seeds inside the pods in some 
instances had become fully formed before the Aphis appeared. By the end of May in 
Maryland many acres of peas were already destroyed, but in Canada it was not until 
the very end of July that the first complaints of injury began to be received. 
The following extracts from some of the letters of correspondents will give an idea 
of the suddenness with which this insect appeared and the extent of its injuries :— 
‘Alberton, P.E.I., Oct. 31.—It appeared as if nature had striven this year to 
multiply aphides to infest every kind of plant. All the fruit trees were infested, the 
whole range of garden truck had its load, and out in the fields they so mutiplied on peas 
sown without grain as to flatten vigorous crops to the ground and completely ruin them. 
The rain prevented the kerosene emulsion from doing its work.’—Rerv. A. E. Burke. 
‘New Minas (Kings Co.), N.S., July 29.—I observed to-day when walking 
through my peas, that there were swarms of active flies somewhat resembling house 
flies, only very shiny. (These were evidently Syrphus flies, the larvee of which do such 
good service by feeding upon plant-lice, as stated further on.—J.F.) On looking closely, 
I found that the vines, including the young pods, were all covered with creeping insects. 
I send you some of these, and shall be glad to know anything you can tell me about 
them, for I fear that they will destroy the crop.—Bupp Bisnop. 
‘Nappan (Cumberland Co.), N.S., August 8.—I send you samples of the work of 
the insect which is destroying our peas. Iam very much afraid that it is going to 
ruin completely our experimental pea plots. These insects increase and spread with 
amazing rapidity. On Aug. 2, I went carefully over all the pea plots and noticed 
that there were a few of these insects distributed all over them. By the 6th they were 
in great numbers in spots all over the field, and now, two days later, they cover the 
whole vines, so that the whole crop will surely be ruined. The lice cluster upon, and 
completely hide the tender parts of the stalk, the blossoms and the under surfaces of 
the leaves. On account of their being mostly on the undersides of the leaves, it is hard 
to get at them with any kind of spray. This aphis seems to be very much like the one 
we sometimes have on plum trees, but it is now much more numerous than anything I 
have ever seen on plum trees, for these literally cover the whole field and they only take 
about 10 days from the time they first appear to suck the life out of the plants and leave 
white dead stalks. Iam afraid this is a very serious matter for our pea crop.’—R. 
Rosertson, Superintendent Hxptl Farm. 
Later in the season Mr. Robertson wrote under date of Dec. 15: ‘The worst insect 
of the year with us was the Pea Aphis which was not only extremely, abundant and 
destructive on our own farm; but judging from the number of inquiries by visitors at 
Nappan, about what was termed in a general way ‘the blight,’ it must have been very 
prevalent in many parts of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.’ , 
‘Adamsville (Kent Co.), N.B., Aug. 18.—I send you herewith a stalk of pea 
covered with insects. All the fields of peas around here are covered with them and 
they kill the peas outright. I have a field infested ; when I first noticed them was 
when the peas were in blossom. They appeared to be withered, so I examined them 
closely and found that they were covered with these little insects. The plants are now 
all withered and look as if they were rusted. I have found the insect also on vetches 
here. I inclose you a sample of these also ; they are destroyed in the same way as the 
peas. I am cutting them at once for fodder. I would like to know if it will be injuri- 
ous in any way to feed these vetches to cattle or horses. This enemy of the pea and 
vetches has never been noticed in this section before.’-—A. J. ARSENAULT. 
‘Elmhurst (King’s Co.), N.B.—Our field peas shortly after the formation of the 
pods became infested with green lice, which were to be found on all parts of the plants, 
