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of the Budworm become sufficiently numerous to control the outbreak; that is, to 

 kill so many of the Budworm caterpillars that the injury ceases. 



The Budworm infestations in Quebec Province appear to be dying out in sec^Jj^_ 

 tions from which we have records. In New Brunswick its injury has beer: very,.g 

 noticeable for the past two seasons. It is always to be feared that Bark beetl- ^^ 

 outbreaks may follow where the trees are badly weakened by the Budworm at ^ 

 tacks; and if any considerable number of spruces actually die, the matter should 

 receive immediate attention. 



Our Birches are attacked by several defoliating insects, and of these the 

 Birch Leaf Skeletonizer has been the most recent ofi'ender. The adult is a very 

 small moth, with a wing expanse of 3-8 of an inch, bright brown in colour, with 

 the wings crossed by silvery white bars. The young are very small, pale-green 

 caterpillars. They skeletonize the leaves during the late summer, causing the 

 foliage to turn brown. The caterpillars spin round, whitish, silken cocoons, 

 within which they change their skin, and they later construct minute, yellowish, 

 ribbed cocoons within which they pass the winter. These outbreaks seldom last 

 more than three years; for by that time the parasitic enemies become numerous 

 enough to control them. 



BEE DISEASES 



With Special Reference to European Foul Brood. 

 P. W. L. Sladcn, Apicultnrist, Central Exp. Farm, Ottazva. 



Bee diseases may be divided into two classes, those affecting the adult bee, 

 the commonest being dysentery, and those affecting the bee larva, the best known 

 being foul brood, of which there are two kinds, American foul brood and Euro- 

 pean foul brood. On account of its highly infectious and rapidly spreading na- 

 ture, and the fact that it kills the 'larvae that are stricken with it, foul brood is a 

 very destructive disease, and requires energetic treatment. This is especially the 

 case with European foul brood, which is causing great loss in a wide and ever- 

 extending area in the Southern part of the province of Quebec. In a colony af- 

 fected with European foul brood the bee larvae, many or few, are seen to have 

 fallen into an irregular me'lting mass, lying in the bottom or on the lower side of 

 their cells. This mass turns to a dull yellowish or grayish colour, growing darker 

 later as it begins to dry up. In badly aft'ected cdlonies a sour or putrid odour is 

 noticeable. 



European foul brood may be distinguished from American foul brood by the 

 fact that the rotting mass cannot be drawn out into strings on inserting a match 

 or tooth-pick into it, and also because it attacks most of the larvae in a somewhat 

 earlier stage, namely before they are capped. There are. therefore, few sunken 

 and perforated cappings, so characteristic a feature of American foul brood. 

 European foul brood is especially destructive in early summer ; in late summer it 

 may almost disappear, but it will re-^appear with full virulence the following 

 May or early in June. It spreads more rapidly than American foul brood, and it 

 is almost impossible to stamp it out of a district that has become thoroughly in- 

 fected with it. 



Both diseases are due to bacteria which are conveyed mainly in the honey, 



