EXPERIMENT STATION EEPORT. 563 



the infestation is not heavy, most of the egg clusters are well down 

 on the trunk and branches, and can he easily reached. . 



Winter work, then, against this insect should be practiced as far 

 as possible, leaving the growing season free for dealing with other 

 pests that can be reached at that time only. Small boys, employed 

 to collect egg masses at a fixed rate per measure, would prove useful 

 in reaching the more obvious material, leaving to the careful inspector 

 the task of finding the less obvious or more inaccessible clusters. There 

 seems to be no real reason why thorough work for a year or two 

 should not result in the almost complete elimination of this insect. 



Quite a number of parasites were bred from material gathered at) 

 New Brunswick, but from some information gained in Massachusetts, 

 it is a question whether almost half of these parasites were not really 

 secondary. In any case the percentage of parasitism was not suffi- 

 ciently great in 1905 to keep the insect down to normal limits. Out- 

 side of cities and 'towns it was rarely met with. 



CRANBERRY OBSERVATIONS. 



The question has been asked, at times, how late in the season water 

 should be held on a cranberry bog to destroy the eggs of the black- 

 head (Eudemis vacciniana) ? This is a matter of great practical 

 importance, and yet it has not been possible to answer it heretofore 

 with any degree of definiteness. We know that the eggs may hatch on 

 exposed vines before even a start is made, and I have found the young 

 larvse dead, in leaf tissue, when water was drawn from a bog by the 

 middle of May. In general, my recommendation has been, hold as 

 long as you dare without risking injury to the crop. On badly-infested 

 bogs water has been held as late as June 1st, with absolute success as 

 against the insect, but the practical loss of the crop. 



At the discussions before the American Cranberry Growers' Asso- 

 ciation, at its winter meeting, January, 1905, it appeared that late 

 holding did not produce exemption during the preceding summer, and 

 that many bogs were seriously injured. But it appeared, also, that 

 the species at fault was the yellow-head (Teras minuta), which hiber- 

 nates as an adult and lays eggs in spring. Late holding in this case, 

 therefore, means only preventing access to the vines until the moths 

 have laid their eggs elsewhere. Further inquiry developed the fact 

 that while the season was unusually late the water was drawn at about 



