1 893-] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 299 



In the check jar there were numerous larvae in the sand all, apparently 

 of them alive, and there were also a very large number of cocoons con- 

 taining unchanged larvae, all of them, apparently, in good condition. In 

 all the other jars there were no living larvae in the sand, and only a very 

 few badly-dried and shriveled specimens could be found; in none of the 

 other jars was there anything like the number of cocoons found in the 

 first one examined. 



Jar number one. Containing muriate of potash in a light application, 

 showed no free larvae, but many cocoons; m bulk about four-fifths of the 

 check lot; but among these, about half of the larvae within the cocoons 

 were dead. 



Jar number two contained double the quantity of muriate. There were 

 nearly as many cocoons as before; but the larvae contained in them were, 

 fully three-fourths of them, dead. 



Jar number three contained nitrate of soda, a light dressing. Theie 

 were no free larvae, and of the cocoons, in bulk about two-thirds as many 

 as in the check lot; but in these cocoons not more than ten per cent, of 

 the larvae were alive; the others were dried and shriveled. 



Jar number four contained double the quantity of nitrate. There were 

 about as many cocoons as before, but I could not find more than about 

 five per cent, of living larvae in them. 



Jar number five contained a light dressing of kainit, about as much as 

 in the heavy dressings of muriate and nitrate. There were no free larvae, 

 and of cocoons in bulk about two-thirds of the check; that is, about the 

 same as in the nitrate, but of living larvae in these cocoons I found less 

 than three per cent. 



Jar number six contained double the amount of kainit. The cocoons 

 in bulk, equaled less than one-third of the check lot, and I found not a 

 single living larva. In other words, in this jar not one-third of the larvae 

 ever formed cocoons, and of those that did get to this point, all died. I 

 think that this experiment, confirmed by the quite remarkable result 

 shown by the field test, proves that we will be able to control, to a very 

 large extent at least, the injuries from this insect by the proper use of the 

 mineral fertilizers. The application should be made very soon after the 

 larvae abandon the pears on the trees, and the application should be a 

 very liberal one, and should be made, if possible, just before or during a 

 mild rain; the object being to carry the solution into the soil as soon as 

 possible. It would advantage the orchard, and would probably also add 

 to the benefit to be derived, if in the Spring, at the time the blossoms are 

 forming, a dressing of nitrate of soda be applied. This would reach the 

 few pupae that might have escaped, and which would be at time leaving 

 the cocoons and working their way to the surface, ready to emerge as 

 imagoes. 



Cresent Horse Ranch, Albany, Tex. — I send a specimen of the so-called 

 heel-fly of Texas, Hypoderma lineafa, bred by me from a larva which I 

 caught as it fell from the back of a Hereford cow. This is, I believe, the 



