798 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



here this year than last, when it attacked nearly three fourths 

 of the crop. Our season has been extremely wet, and I think 

 that both of the tent-caterpillars and aphids have heen later 

 than usual, but now they are very abundant. June 5. Canker 

 worms [?Paleacrita vernata] are even worse than last 

 year, and very little effort is being made to check them. They 

 have attacked forest trees badly in some sections, seeming to 

 favor the elms and spreading from them to neighboring 

 orchards. The appletree and forest tent-caterpillars [C 1 i s i o- 

 campa americana and C. disstria] are very abund- 

 ant on apple and cherry trees, but during a long drive yesterday, 

 I saw nests only in apple and cherry trees. This is a great con- 

 trast to last year, when they worked on nearly everything. They 

 are now crawling along the fences, sidewalks and roads, look- 

 ing for places in which to spin up. Our fields (we have some 60 

 acres scattered around in different places) look uniformly bad 

 from attack by the Hessian fly. They were sowed beginning 

 Sep. 20 and ending a week later. Our wheat is as near a com- 

 plete failure as it is possible to be and yield anything. We may 

 get 5 or 6 bushels to the acre, but we shall probably plow the 

 greater part of it. Both asparagus beetles are present here, 

 but the 12 spotted one [Orioceris 12-p u n c t a t a] is rare. 

 The common form [Orioceris asparagi] is so bad that 

 it is almost impossible to find any asparagus on the market 

 except that which is covered with its eggs. June 11. I am 

 mailing a number of apricot twigs infested with what is appar- 

 ently a peach twig moth. [Cenopis diluticostana 

 Walsm., kindly determined by Prof. C. H. Fernald, subsequently 

 was bred from these twigs.] The pale striped flea beetle [Sys- 

 tena taeniata] observed by us working on seedling apple- 

 trees last year, is now attacking sugar beets. June 24. The 

 small beetles [Notoxus anchor a] sent herewith are very 

 numerous around the roots of wheat. In our seed bed we have 

 several varieties of wheat, all of which were badly injured by 

 the Hessian fly except a check row of " Dawson's golden chaff," 

 not a single straw of which is down. This check row was sown 



