17 



oats and barley also. This was a greyish-brown caterpillar with a semi-transparent skin, 

 a brown horny head, and a shield of the same character on the upper part of the second 

 segment. There was a pale line down the back, two similar lines along each side, and a 

 white band lower down, close to the under surface. One of them was reared through all 

 and produced a neat and rather prett}' moth, known to entomologists as A 

 ala. 



That destructive pest, the wheat midge, Oecidomyia dsstructor, which has entailed so 

 much loss on our farmers in 3-ears gone by, has prevailed during the past season to a 

 consicl jxtent throughout the western part of our Province. Alarming reports 



were sent to me from various districts, and on the 16th of July a tour of inspe I 

 was undertaken for the purpose of ase the extent of the injury. Di 



a drive ol over 100 miles, in company with Mr. J. M. Denton, one of the m • 

 of our Council, the wheat fields were examined, and midge was found generady 

 distributed, but nowhere in any very great numbers. Some varieties of wheat were 

 much more injured than others, that known under the names of Michigan Amber 

 and E eemed to suffer much. Among the variecies almost free from this trouble 



the Democrat wheat was one of the. m J ued. The selection of some of the best of 



the so-called midge-prooi sorts for seed, the kernels of which harden so early in the season 

 that the larva is unable to feed on them is assuredly one of the most practicable methods 

 : lg the depredations of this troublesome insect. 



The Colorado potato beetle, Doryphora decsiulineata, is still further extending its 



" s. Having reached the Atlant' d in the east its further progress in that 



direction has been arrested ; it is now extending its domain over the fertile fields of the 

 North-West. Specimens have been sent to me this season from Portage La Prairie, 

 where they are .said to be confined to the neighbourhood of the town, and having been 

 vigorously with Paris green it is hoped that they have been pretty well exter- 



minated. Through the kindness of Acton Burrows, Esq., the efficient Deputy Minister 

 of Agriculture in Manitoba, T have received information of the appearance of this pest in 

 the counties of Manchester and Dufferin in the same Province, but in none of these 

 localities has the insect yet made much headway. 



Grape growers in some sections of Ontario suffered much early in the season from 



injuries caused by the grape-vine flea-beetle, Graptodera chalyhea. This insect, which is 



three-twentieths of an inch long and varies in colour from a steel blue to green, 



:er in the perfect state, hyb -mating under dead leaves and other rubbish, 



and awaking from its long slumber in early spring proceeds to satisfy its vigorous a 



tite by consuming the tmler buds of the grape-vine just a3 they are swelling. These 



inlets have been so plentiful in some vineyards that the crop has been almost destroy •:!. 



Where they prove tr-oublesome they may be collected by spreading sheets on the ground 



the vines and jarring the canes early in the morning when the beetles are in a 



o, or they m<y be poisoned by syringing the swelling buds with Paris green 



and v 



curculio, Conotrachelus nenuphew, continues its mischievous work in most 



parts of the Province where piums are grown, and the labour attending the jarring of the 



trees urpose of capturing and killing the insects deters many from undertaking 



ition of this useful fruit. Prom the evidence thus far obtained it would appear 



that the remedy which has been found so efficacious in subduing the codling moth of the 



apple, namely, Paris green and water, in the proportion of ateaspoontul of the poison to a 



padful of water, will also protect the plum crop from the ravages of curculio. 



remedy should be extensively tried by thoroughly syringing the trees with it as soon as 



the fiuit has set, and repeating the application in a few days should rain occur to wash it 



off. Should this remedy prove uniformly successful a great stimulus will be given to 



culture. During the past season the plum crop on my own grounds was a failure. 



the trees having had but very few blossoms. In the absence of plums the curculios 



Lted their eggs freely on the pears, manifesting a special fondness for Clapp's 



rite. Although I watched them carefully, I failed to find a single example where 



the insect matured in this fruit. The only effect observed was a slight disfigurement in 



the form of the. fruit and the production of a hard spot where the incision was made 



2 (EN.) 



