6 



earlier-infested pupre during the last few days; and while I was in the office, 

 Mr. Games, who had them under his charge, sent away a number of packages 

 to apple-growers who had applied for them for liberation in their orchards. 



This is the parasite obtained about two years before from the north of 

 Spain by the entomologist of Western Australia ; it was figured and described 

 all over the world as the parasite that would, in a few years, wipe out the 

 codling moth in every country where it was properly introduced. It was 

 claimed that there was no codling moth in Spanish apple orchards. In 

 reference to apple orchards in Spain, I might state that on asking information of 

 Professor D. L. Kavarro, Director of Agriculture and in charge of Experimental 

 Stations at Madrid, he said that all the apple orchards in Spain were of very 

 small extent, chiefly con6ned to the north and north-west districts; and instead 

 of being free from codling moth, there was hardly a sound apple in one of 

 them. There was no export of apples, and the bulk of them were used for 

 cider, so that it did not matter much if they were grubby. He had never 

 heard of a parasite having the least effect upon them. This display of 

 codling moth parasites in the cages was very interesting from an entomo- 

 logical point of view ; bub when it came to the question of where these same 

 parasites could be found looking for codling moth in the apple orchards none 

 of the officers could tell me. Accompanied by Professor Woodworth, of the 

 University of California, I afterwards went over the great apple orchards 

 of Watsonville and the Pajaro Valley, where there was plenty of codling 

 moth, and where a great number of these parasites had been liberated. 

 Neither the County Entomologist (Mr. Vo^ck) or any of the orchardists had 

 ever seen a codling moth parasite in the orchards. Mr. C. H. Rogers, the 

 County Horticultural Commissioner, told us that they had sent many 

 thousands of codling moth grubs to the office at San Francisco to rear up the 

 parasites. 



The conditions of codling moth in Pajaro Valley are somewhat interesting, 

 and a large series of experiments have been carried out. The lower part of 

 the valley, which lies behind the Bay of Monterey, is very subject to fogs, 

 which makes spraying difficult, because the fog forms moisture on the fruit 

 and foliage that dissolves the arsenic and causes it to burn the foliage ; but at 

 the same time the action of the fog also keeps the eggs of the codling moth 

 from sticking to the damp surface of the fruit, so that the damage from 

 moth is slight. The higher the altitude in the valley the worse the moth ; 

 and if unsprayed, 75 per cent, of the fruit is damaged. Most of the orchards 

 on the hillsides are sprayed from three to five times in the season with 

 arsenate of lead, and under these conditions no bandaging is done. Mr. 

 Luther sold 30,000 Ib. of arsenate of lead last season to these apple-growers, 

 and he thought about 3,000 Ib. more had been sold by the small dealers. 

 One and a half million dollars' worth of apples were grown and sent from this, 

 valley last year. , 



The next place I visited to inquire into the codling moth parasite was at 

 Sacramento. Here Mr. J. Isaacs, the Horticultural Commissioner, said he 

 had liberated a great number of the ichneumon wasps, but had only seen one 

 specimen at large since they had been turned out. We went all over the old 

 garden round his house, but though on the old apple-trees there were any* 

 number of codling moth grubs, we found no codling moth parasite. 



Mr. Ehrhorn, the very able entomologist in charge at the Horticultural 

 Commissioner's office at San Francisco, could not tell me of any other place to 

 visit, and this was all they knew cf the Spanish codling moth parasite. Yet, 

 in the last Annual Report of the New Zealand Department of Agriculture, 

 1907, Mr. Kirk says, "that they sent codling moth grubs from New Zealand to 



