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83 
noti(;e(l (in ISOG) tliiit lUiiiiy of tlic blossom buds on (b^Nvbcirios tunu'd 
brown, looking ;is tliough they had been bli«;hted. * * ♦ It (;on»- 
men(!es work as soon as the buds appear and continues as long as there 
is a bud left to work on. On one occasion 1 collected 150 cul buds 
from a single i)lant and two days later (JO more. More than three- 
fourths of my (!rop has been destroyed this year. They apix^ar to be 
worse on dewberries than upon the upright or bush blackberries, but 1 
discovered no signs of their work on strawberries." Mr. L. W. Clarke, 
of the same locality, wrote on April 28 that this species was cutting 
blackberry buds just before blossoming, and that it seriously threatened 
the destruction of the crop in his vicinity. Mr. E. P. Stiles, editor of 
the *' Horticultural Gleaner," Austin, Tex., wrote that at Sherman, in 
the northeastern part of the State, this species api)eared in destructive 
numbers and entirely destroyed the blackberry crop of one of his cor- 
respondents. Only 2 gallons of berries were gathered from 2 acres. 
In Maryland, Mr. W- G. Johnson, of the Maryland Agricultural 
Exi^eriment Station, has reported this species as destroying about a 
third of the cro]) in portions of Anne Arundel, Prince George, and 
Caroline counties. Mr. James S. Robinson, horticulturist of the same 
station, cited a case where the loss on a patch of the Michel variety 
reached 50 per cent. In the neighborhood of Church Hill, Queen Anne 
County, Mr. Fred Minch and others reported damage. In 1896 the 
gentleman mentioned lost his entire crop. Paris green had been tried, 
but too late to be of any benefit, although it was noticed to have killed 
a great many of the insects. In this locality the insect was known 
as 'Hhe saw fly," but the description of its manner of work plainly 
indicates that the insect noted was the strawberry weevil. Mr. J. S. 
Lapham, of Goldsboro, Caroline County, reported the weevil present 
in his vicinity, and that the Lady Thompson variety was most suscei)ti- 
ble to its attack. Mr. Henry C. Hallowell stated that the insect had 
been present in his neighborhood in recent years and had injured about 
one-half of the crop in the vicinity of Sandy Spring, Montgomery County. 
Hon. W. I). Pyles wrote from Silver Hill, Prince George County, where 
the strawberry weevil was iirst reported as an injurious species, that it 
had done considerable damage there for several years. He believed 
that tobacco dust and fertilizers spread lightly over the vines from the 
time of blooming till the berry is of the size of a marble was of some 
value as a deterrent, but that nothing that was tried entirely eradicated 
the insects. 
In Virginia, Mr. Prank L. Birch sent specimens from Falls Church, 
with the report that the insect had been very destructive for the 
past four years at that place. Mr. John B. Ferratt, of Norfolk, stated 
that in the year 1892, he lost 12 acres of strawberry plants by this 
beetle. He plowed the plants under and applied 50 bushels of fresh- 
burnt oyster-shell lime to each acre, and reports that since that time 
he has never seen or heard of any more of the beetles in Norfolk 
