60 Vict. 



Provincial Board of Horticulture. 



13 



Prom the life history just given, three important facts are c)btained; (1.) It will pay to 

 make a preventive application of some of the mixtures mentioned further on, with apparatus 

 ^ before described, to all plum trees in the neighbourhood of hop yards, either 

 Remedies. in the spring, before tlie appearance of the first >vinged generation and its 

 consequent migration to hop, or in the fall after hop picking and after the 

 lice have once more returned to the plum, and are making their preparations for the laying of 

 winter eggs. The latter time will, perhaps, be preferable, for the reason that in the fall the 

 plum trees will be less susceptible to the action of the washes, and a stronger solution can be 

 applied without danger to the trees. (2.) All wild plum trees in the woods through a hop- 

 growing country should be destroyed. (3.) The hop vines should be either burned or thoroughly 

 drenched with kerosene emulsion as soon after the crop is harvested as possible, with a view of 

 killing the males, and thus preventing the impregnation of the females. (4.) If the above 

 measures have bef!n neglected and the lice have attacked the vines, the crop can still be pro- 

 tected by spraying with insecticide mixtures, which, if thoroughly applied will prove effective, 

 and there will be no danger of reinfestation from neighbouring untreated yards, since during 

 the summer the lice cannot migrate except by crawling from one yard to another. 



Mr. Chas. Whitehead, P.S.A., etc., etc.. Agricultural Adviser to the Privy Council, says 

 in reference to the formula given below : " There are no actual proofs that any other remedy 

 or tr«atment than washing is at all effectual against the aphis blight. Lime has been thrown 

 up over the plants without any results. Soot has been tried. Insecticides are dead failures, 

 and manurings have had no marked influence." 



Spraying with any of the well-known insecticides by means of a horse sprayer up and down 

 the rows. The following formula for a spray is recommended by the Board of Agriculture of 

 England and is found to be most effectual: A decoction of 10 fts. of quassia chips made by 

 boiling; 7 Bs. soft or whale oil soap, and 100 gallons of water. The chips may be used twice, 

 the second decoction being of course weaker. The hops should be sprayed at least five times 

 during the summer, and if the insects are very bad, oftener. 



WOOLLY APHIS {Schizoneura lanigera). After RUey. 



(a), an infested root ; (6), the larva— colour brown ; (c), winged adult— colours, 

 black and yellow ; (d), its leg ; (e), its beak ; (/), its antennse ; 

 (d), antennfe of the larva ; all highly magnified. 



This aphis is also widely distributed in the lower parts of the Province, and is firmly 



established in most of the old orchards in and near the cities. It is generally considered the 



most troublesome insect pest of apple trees we have, from the diflBculty 



Woolly Aphis, experienced in cleansing an orchard infested with it, and its harmful efiect 



upon the trees. Its name of woolly aphis is derived from the secretion 



resembling fine cottony fibre, which more or less covers its body. The insects appear on 



infested trees during the summer in masses like tufts of cotton, attached to the twigs or leaves, 



beneath which will be found the bodies of the insects. 



In the winter months they shelter under the bark or in cavities in the wood of the trees, 

 - or descend to the roots ; large numbers will often be found at or near the collar of the root. 



The eggs of woolly aphides are stated by Dr. Smith' "to be found singly in crevices of 

 the bark, enveloped in the dry skin of the female." 



