16 THE REPORT OF THE | L9 



me. He moves about with a business air, he seems to think the whole responsibility of 

 continuing the race rests upon him and he has no time to lose, and I have stirred them 

 up with the point of my knife and watched them as they would fly as tar as I could see 

 them, and I have been surprised at the rapidity with which they can fly. 



I think they will travel very much further than a few inches, I have watched them 

 very often when they walked more than an inch in a minute. I have watched them at it 

 many a time, and last October, about a year ago now, I was in the Wigle orchard and I 

 found a pear tree there of which nearly the whole of the bottom had been cut away 

 because of blight, and as a natural result of this the growth was strong. There were 

 auckers there about that stump that reached up about six feet, and on the bottom of that 

 young wood there was Scale. It may have been carried there by something else, but in 

 my opinion it would be a very easy matter for them to get there from the stump of the 

 tree, and if you reduce it to figures a little over an inch in a minute would simply mean 

 an hour's walk to get up that stick. 



I do not know how we are going to cover the ground by spraying. The past sum- 

 mer there is no doubt the Scale extended beyond the proportion it held at the beginning 

 of the season. We have to spray the peach trees within how many days before blossom ? 



Professor Webster : That would depend upon the season, sometimes it would be a 

 very few days. 



Mr. Fisher : A good many instances have come to my knowledge where last year 

 there was no Scale and now the trees are covered with scales. 



Mr. C. C. James, Deputy Minister of Agriculture : I come, as your President stated, 

 to take the place of the Minister who regrets exceedingly his inability to be here. I have 

 come not to talk but to listen. As you of course are aware this j-ubject has presented 

 itself in very large proportions to the Department. As we went on with the work it 

 opened out more ard more, and unless you have had special opportunity of following the 

 development, I am quite sure you have no idea of the enormous amount of work that has 

 been done in connection with it. 



The work done last year was quite extensive, and this year at least twenty- five 

 thousand dollars will be expended in following up this microscopic insect. I do not 

 know what we would have done if we had not had Mr. Fisher. He is one man in a 

 thousand. We have given him the ta?k and he has gone ahead with it, faithfully and 

 energetically. I know that he and his assistants have been working, not simply in the 

 day, but night and day, and the fruit-growers have been well served by him. (Applause.) 



This question presents itself to the Department from various standpoints. As Pro- 

 fessor Lochhead said, the Government cannot do everything ; we can only direct matters 

 and we hope to have the co-operation of the many persons who are interested. It seems 

 to me that if, during the past years, we had had some instruction in our public schools as 

 to the simple first principles of Entomology, we might have been wonderfully helped in 

 this work. If the public school teachers had known a little more about insects, and had 

 given the children of farmers and fruit-growers some instruction in the subject, we might 

 have made a census of this Scale from one end of the Province to the other, and have 

 started out on our work with more knowledge. Perhaps we would have been warned 

 much earlier. We need more nature study in our schools. 



A Member : Mr. Dearness advocates that. 



Mr. Dearness is one man in a thousand along that line. There are very few school 

 inspectors who take the interest in the matter that he does. What the Minister desires 

 at the present time is to get some idea as how to carry on this work. Professor Web- 

 ster says this treatment must not be left to the individuals. Must we send out a corps 

 of men to look after this work 1 How are we going to introduce this work and carry it 

 out successfully? If it is done it must be done thoroughly. We must employ for it 

 only men who are competent. We feel that this is a question of tremendous importance, 

 that the fruit-growing interests have much at stake in the matter. The further we have 

 investigated it the more we have been convinced of the enormous risks we have been 



