32 BULLETIN 156, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
From the last experiment we conclude that the use of coal tar and 
Paris green is not a remedial measure to be recommended. However, 
Dr. H. T. Fernald has published? an account of a series of experi- 
ments that seem to reach quite the opposite conclusion, and it is 
very probable that gas tar will not prevent germination as did the 
coal tar of our experiments. 
The copper-sulphate plat was more severely infested than the 
check plats, so this treatment is quite useless as an insecticide for 
wireworms. The potato bait poisoned with strychnine was a fail- 
ure because the potatoes were allowed to dry up before being placed 
in the ground. 
Mr. G. I. Reeves carried on an experiment at Pullman, Wash., 
using a commercial tobacco extract apphed to the seed corn as a re- 
pellent. This experiment was carried on in a root cage. On May 27, 
1909, he treated 15 kernels of seed corn by soaking for 24 hours in a 
solution of commercial tobacco extract, 1 part to 16 parts of water. 
The seed was dried before planting and was sown with alternate 
untreated seeds as a check. Wireworms were introduced at the time 
of seeding and also on June 2. The experiment was discontinued 
on June 10, and all the seed carefully examined. Of the treated 
seeds, eight were eaten into by wireworms, while nine of the un- 
treated seeds were destroyed. It is very evident from this experi- 
ment that tobacco solution as a repellent is quite useless, at least for 
wireworms. 
Soaking the seed in formalin has been suggested as a means of 
repelling wireworms. This measure is quite useless. In the re- 
gions of the Pacific Northwest where the author was studying 
severe wireworm outbreaks nearly all the seed wheat had been 
treated with formalin as a means of preventing the development 
of smut fungus. 
Mr. O. A. Johannsen and Miss Edith M. Patch have published ? 
the results of a series of experiments carried on in Maine. They 
treated seed corn with tar and Paris green, and with arsenate of lead, 
and found both of these treatments inefficient. 
SOIL TREATMENT. 
The second group of remedial measures—soil treatment—has re- 
ceived considerable attention. Experiments with soil fumigants are 
now being carried on by the writer, but as the methods have not as yet 
been placed on a practical basis this matter will not be treated herein. 
1 Fernald, H. T. A new treatment for wireworms. Jn Jour. Econ. Ent., v. 2, No. 4, 
p. 279-280, August, 1909. 
2 Johannsen, O. A., and Patch, Edith M. Insect Notes for 1911. Maine Agr. Exp. Sta., 
Bul. 195, p. 229-248, December, 1911. 
