90 



JOURNAL OF ECOXOMIC ENTOMOLOGY 



[Vol. 8 



The poison bait spray used is composed of five grams of sodium 

 arsenite dissolved in a gallon of boiling water into which is thoroughly 

 mixed a pint of New Orleans molasses. This bait is applied as a coarse 

 spray of large drops once a week in strips across the onion field through- 

 out the summer. The results show almost perfect control at a cost 

 not to exceed 50 to 75 cents per acre for the summer treatment. 



The results of this treatment serve to emphasize this point in the 

 address of our President relating to a more careful and thorough study 

 of all stages of our economic insect pests with a view to finding the 

 most vulnerable stage in their life history. I really believe that more 

 attention should be given to the destruction of tlie adult insects where- 

 ever it is feasible. 



Mr. E. p. Felt: I tliink most of us would heartily endorse what 

 our President conveyed in his message of yesterday, and while I do 

 not care to discuss the addi^ess as a whole. I would like to refer to two 

 matters, namely, the study of life zones and the prediction of insect 

 outbreaks. 



We are located next to Massachusetts, and if we had desired to do 

 so, could have brought a map of Xew York State shoeing very nearly 

 a duplication of the conditions described in Massachusetts. 'Move 

 than that, we are using this general knowledge of life zones in our rec- 

 ommendations and are finding in that connection some interesting 

 and important economic applications. AVe began studying life zones 

 in a general way in 1898. and while we have not given a large amount 

 of time to the investigation, it is a matter which has been constantly 

 ^in mind. At the outset we made some temperature calculations, and, 

 among other things, found probable extensions of the upper austral 

 zone^lmost to Lake George and Lake Champlain. We have in Xew 

 York State, certain insects rather closely confined to this zone. This 

 is fairly well marked in the case of the San Jose scale and the elm-leaf 

 beetle. Five or six years ago the latter began to be injurious at Glens 

 Falls (altitude 300+ feet, soil sandy), a locality considerably north of 

 the usual recognized boundary of the upper austral hfe zone. At that 

 time I gave an opinion in the belief that this locality lay in the transi- 

 tion zone, to the effect that there was a fair chance of the insect not 

 proving injurious. Subsequent developments showed that this insect 

 was injurious not onh^ there but also at Ticonderoga ( elevation about 

 200 feet) on Lake Champlain. 



An important point in this connection is that the northern extension 

 of the upper austral life zone and of insects associated there^dth, may 

 be brought about in two ways. In the first place Ave have a great 

 prolongation northward of land only a little above sea level, and in 

 the second, and fulh' as important in some respects, is that north from 



