49 



and, having at a great expense perfected their irrigation facilities, 

 desire to continue growing berry plants upon the same ground, the 

 carbon-bisulphid treatment if thorough^ emplo} T ed will afford prac- 

 tical relief. This will probably have to be modified to suit conditions, 

 and to be effective it should be used before the insects change to the 

 beetle form. 



In the fields of young plants the destructive work of the insect can 

 be controlled by careful watching during the latter part of April and 

 the month of May. All j^oung plants which have been found infested 

 contained but one grub. These were very small, of a bluish color, and 

 apparently but a few days old. A careful search of the soil surround- 

 ing them failed to show an} T other grubs. If these plants were care- 

 fully lifted as soon as they commenced to wilt, the cause would be 

 invariably brought up with them; and if the insects be promptly 

 killed, the work of destruction would be very materially curtailed. A 

 simple method that would make this work complete suggested itself 

 to the writer during the investigation. By pushing an iron wheel- 

 barrow containing a bed of hot coals before him, a man could effectu- 

 ally destroy the wilted plants taken from say two rows on either side. 

 This would be a quicker method than searching for the grub, safer 

 than hauling away the plants, and would be effective against &\\y eggs 

 remaining unhatched upon the plants. 



There is no practical method known to me of saving the plant that 

 has become infested with the larva of this insect. Carbon bisulphid 

 stands out prominently as a remedial agent for this and other subter- 

 ranean forms of insect life, and is worthy of better and more extended 

 acquaintance on our part with its practical merits along this line. 



No evidence of the presence of the strawberry weevil, Anthonomus 

 signatus, nor the larvae of an insect that works in the crown of the 

 strawberiy and was formerl} T supposed to be identical with Anarsia 

 Uneatella, the peach worm of this State, was found in any of the 

 strawberry fields covered by this investigation. 



ADDITIONAL NOTES. 



Writing in response to inquiry as to the value of water in the treat- 

 ment of soil infested by the larvse of Fuller's rose beetle about the 

 roots of strawberry, Mr. Maskew stated that although water might be 

 of service as a remedy, it could not be used in the vicinity of Long- 

 beach, Cal., but his experiments tended to prove that elsewhere it 

 might be successful. "It might be possible to drown them out, but 

 the soil in this locality is a loose, open gravelly loam, and takes water 

 like a sponge. Water is costly in this region, and this method might 

 cost as much or more than carbon bisulphid." It was customary to 

 irrigate the strawberiy fields about every ten days during the bearing 

 season. In the moist or wet ground larvae and beetles were all within 

 22104— No. 44—04 4 



