ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 81 



Vegetables. 



Vegetables in gardens suffered locally from the usual pests of the garden, Cutworms, 

 Flea-beetles, Onion, Radish and Cabbage maggots. For cutworms, banding freshly set out 

 plants with paper or tin collars was quite effective ; and for plants grown in rows, bran 

 poisoned with Paris green was most effectual, either slightly dampened so as to make the 

 poison adhere and then distributed in small heaps along the rows, or with more bran 

 added until it was almost dry and then drilled along the rows. Flea-beetles (Phyllotreta 

 vittata, Fab.) on radishes, young cabbages and turnip3 were speedily disposed of by dusting 

 the plants with Paris green, IK) in 255)3. of perfectly dry land plaster. The Root 

 Maggots were unusually abundant and many experiments were tried to find a good 

 remedy. Dusting Hellebore and Insect powder well down among the plants gave perhaps 

 the best results with radishes and onions. For the cabbage maggot Hellebore 2 oz and 

 Kainit 2 oz. were mixed in a pailful of water ; about half a teacupful poured around the 

 root of each cabbage after pulling away some of the earth, gave considerable protection 

 but was not a perfect remedy. Kainit used alone, dissolved in water, or applied dry 

 close to the roots of cabbages, onions and radishes and then covered with soil, or dusted 

 on the surface close to the roots, had the effect of protecting the plants for a time, but did 

 not give with me results sufficiently good to allow of its being recommended in the way 

 some American growers have done. Last season, however, was an exceptionally bad one 

 for all of the root maggots ; radishes, onions and cabbages all being attacked severely from 

 early in the spring until right up to the hard frosts of autumn. Kainit however is a 

 quick acting fertilizer and a decided insecticide. Further experiments have been planned, 

 and growers of vegetables can use it with advantage in ordinary years. 



The Carrot Rust-fly (Psila rpsce, Fab ). An attack upon carrots which has re- 

 cently called for attention in Canada is by the European enemy of the carrot, called the 

 Carrot Rust-fly. This has come under my notice occasionally during the last ten years 

 in parts of Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick, in all cases doing much harm in 

 restricted localities, but as a rule disappearing after a year or two. The outbreaks, how- 

 ever, are, I fear, becoming gradually more numerous. During the past autumn infested 

 carrots were sent to me from Knowlton and Beauce in Qaebec Province and from Ottawa 

 in Ontario. The attack is easily recognized. Early in the season the leaves of young 

 carrots turn reddish and the roots will be found to be blotched with rusty patches, par- 

 ticularly towards the tip These carrots 

 when stored for winter use, although some- 

 times not showing much injury on the 

 outside, may be found to be perforated in 

 every direction by dirty brown burrows, in 

 which are many semi-transparent yellowish 

 maggots about \ of an inch long. These 

 maggots are blunt at the tail end, but taper 

 toward the head, where is a black hooked 

 tip, forked at the base, by which the 

 maggot makes its way through the roots. 

 ¥igT48^The Carrot Rust-fly— natural size (1, 5, 7), Tbe pumparium is reddish-brown, and the 

 and enlarged (2, 6, 8). maggots, as a rule, leave the cairots before 



assuming this form. The fly and its work are shown very well in the figure (Fig. 48) by 

 John Curtis, which I am able to present herewith through the courtesy of Miss Ormerod 

 and Messrs. Blackie & Sons. The mature fly is tw/)- winged, \ of an inch long, bright 

 shiny black, with yellow legs and red eyes. The wings are beautifully iridescent. The 

 winter is passed either as a maggot or in the puparium. 



Remedies. — The methods which have given the best results in preventing injury by 

 the Carrot Rust-fly are (I). Late sowing. Carrots which have been sown late have been 

 found much freer from attack than those sown at the ordinary time. When grown as a 

 field crop it is usual to sow carrots as soon as possible, but for table U8e carrots of excell- 

 ent quality may be obtained from seeding as late even as the middle of June. If field carrots 

 grown for stock are only moderately attacked they can be fed but, of course, are not as 

 6 EN. 



