48 



tion. The report was signed by R. A. Harper and Tracy Hazen. 



Dr. Sinnott, Dr. Graves, Mrs. Harper, Mrs. Hastings, and 

 Mrs. Dodge have been asked to act on the Entertainment 

 Committee. 



Mr. Ernst J. Schreiner spoke of Aeroplane Dusting of spruce 

 forests with insecticides to kill the spruce bud work. These ex- 

 periments were carried out by the Entomological Branch of The 

 Canadian Department of Agriculture during June, 1927. The 

 first step was to lay out a number of plots 800 feet by 400 feet. 

 The aeroplane was supplied by The Dominion Air Board. Test 

 flights were made to determine the ground speed of the aero- 

 plane and to determine the rate of delivery of the dust. Two 

 kinds of dust were tested, calcium arsenate and lead arsenate. 

 These dusts are poisonous to caterpillars and if they are small it 

 will not take much dust to kill them. Calciuni arsenate dis- 

 tributed at the rate of 20 pounds to the acre was found to be 

 effective. Large poles with flags, tall enough to stand out 

 above the trees were tied into the tops of corner trees, so the 

 aviator could see the flag and know just where to dust. Dustings 

 had to be done early between four and six o'clock in the morn- 

 ing. The reasons for dusting at that hour was that there was no 

 wind. The least wind blows the dust long distances and pre- 

 vents even distribution. Moisture makes the dust stick a little 

 better early in the morning. Cape Breton didn't seem calm 

 enough to dust in the evening. The aeroplane travelled ten to 

 forty feet above the tree tops and west at the rate of ninety 

 miles an hour. An aeroplane dusts five acres a minute. One 

 thousand five hundred pounds can be taken in one aeroplane. 



Dr. Fred J. Seaver spoke on an interesting phalloid. He 

 stated that almost everyone is familiar with the phalloids be- 

 cause these plants have a way of forcing themselves to our 

 attention whether we are interested or not. 



To illustrate this he called attention to an incident which 

 occurred several years ago while summering in Connecticut: 

 Their next door neighbors were very much disturbed because, 

 as they supposed, a small animal had crawled under their front 

 porch and had been so inconsiderate as to die there, emitting 

 after a few days an offensive odor. The speaker was not there 

 at the time, but his wife, who happened to be familiar with the 

 characteristics of this fungus called their attention to a phalloid 



