362 



Maple-scale when diluted 12 times. It was also efficacious against the 

 Cabbage Maggot. Eureka insecticide was found to be a specific against 

 the Eed Spider, but was unsuccessful against everything else. Sludge- 

 oil soap, manufactured by the Columbia Chemical Works, Brooklyn^ 

 killed the Eose Chafer, the Striped Cucumber-beetle, and the Elm Leaf- 

 beetle. . 



The Screw-worm again.— We have not yet noticed the bulletin from the 

 Texas Agricultural Experiment Station upon the subject of this cattle 

 pest, prepared by Dr. M. Francis. Dr. Francis goes carefully over the 

 ground recently treated by Professor Morgan, of the Louisiana Station^ 

 and gives a very good summary of the habits of this insect, illustrated 

 by very fair figures. Dr. Francis's observations lead him to believe 

 that the egg may hatch within 24 hours after oviposition, and that the 

 larvae require about a week for full growth, while the pupa state occu- 

 pies from 9 to 12 days. There is great confusion of generations, and 

 while the larvae are developing in the wounds other flies are continually 

 layiu g fresh eggs in the same spot, thus keeping up a constant progressive 

 irritation and loss of tissue. They grow in wounds from horns, castrat- 

 ing, spaying, branding, dehorning, bar bed- wire injuries, and often where 

 ticks have burst on the brisket or flank, and just behind the udder of 

 cows. They often grow in the vulvae of fresh cows, especially if there 

 has been a retention of the placenta after birth. Young calves are al- 

 most invariably affected in the navel and often in the mouth, causing 

 the teeth to fall out. He records an interesting case in which twenty- 

 five full-grown larvae were found in hair balls in the stomach. The 

 explanation is that the calf had licked sores upon his legs containing 

 worms. Hogs are often badly attacked, horses and mules less often,, 

 while sheep are comparatively free, except where they have been bitten 

 by dogs. The treatment consists in killing the larvae with cresylic 

 ointment, calomel, chloroform, or carbolic acid. The wound is after- 

 wards filled with oakum and the edges are annointed with tar, to pre- 

 vent further oviposition. 



The Sugar Cane Borer.* — Professor Morgan has just published a short 

 account of Chilo saccliaralis and its damage to sugar cane and sorghum 

 in Louisiana. He is of the opinion that the damage caused by this in- 

 sect is much greater than the planters really suspect. The article con- 

 tains little that is definitely original beyond the finding of the larva of 

 one of the Soldier-beetles {GhauUognathus petmsylvanicus) in the bur- 

 rows feeding upon the borer larvae. The bulletin ends with a series of 

 questions to planters calculated to draw out fuller information during 

 the coming season. 



* Bulletin of the Louisiana State Experiment Station. Second series No. 9. 

 "Sugar Cane Borer and its Parasite," by H. A. Morgan, Baton Rouge, 1891. 



