53 
Mr. Osborn spoke of the aggravation attending the receipt of ex- 
changes bearing only an accession number. In such cases the label 
should give all the known data. In preparing paper points for mount- 
| ing he had obtained the best results by cutting them with arazor. He 
| had found a card catalogue very valuable for filing data on each species. 
Mr. Johnson explained a duplicate system of records used by himself 
at the Maryland station. ; 
The next paper was the following: 
| 
| 
A PROBABLE REMEDY FOR THE CRANBERRY FIREWORM. 
| By A. H. KirKLanp, Malden, Mass. 
The damage caused by the “fireworm,” as the larva of Rhopobota 
vacciniana Pack. is commonly called, is probably the most serious 
| hindrance to the successful cultivation of the cranberry. In Massa- 
| chusetts the average annual value of the cranberry crop often exceeds 
| $1,000,000, and at this figure there is ample testimony to show that 
from one-fourth to one-half the crop is destroyed by insects, chiefly by 
| the species under consideration. 
It will be recalled that this insect is a double-brooded Tortricid moth 
| whose scale-like eggs pass the winter attached to the leaves of the 
cranberry, and that the larve draw together the young leaves and feed 
| 
within the web, a habit that complicates the successful application of 
insecticides. The first brood seldom causes extensive injury, but the 
larvee of the second brood often destroy the foliage of an entire bog, 
leaving acres of cranberry meadow as brown as if swept by fire. The 
effect of this injury, of course, is to destroy the crop and to limit the 
bearing of the vines the following year. 
For the want of a better remedy there has developed among growers 
the practice of reflowing the bogs at a time when all the eggs of the 
first brood have hatched, and by holding the water on the bog for 
twenty-four hours the young larvee are drowned. This operation, sim- 
ple in itself, calls for excellent judgment on the part of the grower, and 
while it necessitates the outlay of considerable capital in building dikes, 
it affords a practical method for controlling the fireworm wherever a 
suitable water supply can be obtained. There are, however, hundreds 
of acres of otherwise valuable cranberry meadows which from their 
location can not be flowed, and these meadows, known paradoxically 
as ‘dry bogs,” are the cnentant sufferers from the fireworm. On these 
bogs strong tobacco water applied from sprinkling pots has been gen- 
erally adopted as the best remedy for the fireworm. This treatment is 
expensive, the liquid costing from 2 to 4 cents per gallon, and since it 
must be repeated after each rain, is but partially successful. 
Several years ago Prof. C. H. Fernald suggested the use of Paris 
green aS a means for controlling this pest, but, owing to the uneven 
composition of this insecticide, the danger of injuring the young vines 
through too strong applications, and the ease with which it was washed 
EEE ee 
