As the upper austral zone includes the southern tier of counties in Ontario, many of the insects of this region are well known in this province. The Chinch Bug is rarely reported in North Carolina from either the eastern or the western sections, but it is a standard pest in the middle section. Spraying with kerosene emulsion at a strength of 10 to 15 per cent. oil has been practised in a few instances but only with more or less injury to the crops, and our recommendation was to rely principally upon the well-known plowing methods, and our farmers were surprised to see how effectual even a single, deep, furrow was.

The Hessian Fly is another pest which is practically confined to this region, probably mainly because very little wheat is grown in the other sections. At any rate it is here a very destructive insect in the best wheat section of the state. Late planting is the preventative usually employed, and careful inquiry brought out the fact that from October 15th to November 1st is the safest time to sow to avoid fly and at the same time escape the injurious effects of winter freezing. Wheat is frequently sown as late as the last week in November, and I have been told of seeding in Xmas. week.

There are but few insects which I could name as distinctive of this region. One of the most characteristic butterflies is Euptoieta claudia (Fig. 9), the larvæ of which are everywhere common on the May-pop or Passionflower. Another is the Buckeye, Junonia coenia (Fig. 10). Both of these butterflies are almost too southern in range to be expected in Ontario, though I suspect, without having inquired, that they are occasional in the southern counties.

[They have been taken, though rarely, in the Counties bordering on Lake Erie. ED.]

THE WESTERN REGION.

This region is characterized by high plateaus and mountain ranges. It lies in the Transition and the Boreal life-zones. The Transition includes all of Old Ontario between the northern and southern tiers of counties, and the Boreal includes practically all of New Ontario and the great region about James Bay. Of course the more northern animals and plants of these regions are not represented in North Carolina, but one would be surprised at the similarity of the mountain plateau region and the country right here at Guelph. Cattle-grazing is one of the chief agricultural occupations, while hay, potatoes, oats, and apples are also standard crops. This is the only region where currants, raspberries, and rhubarb can really be said to be a success. Here, too, one finds many of the typical Ontario insects and insect pests. The currant bushes are regularly attacked by the currant worm, and the apple trees by the Oyster-shell scale, which is only known to me in this state in the mountain and west-central parts of the state.

In

As

the steep mountain orchards the dust-spray is being experimented with. one apple-grower in this region has something over 30,000 trees now coming into bearing, the cheapest, efficient means of spraying the trees becomes an important question. The Scurfy Scale is more abundant here than else

where in the state.

Among the insects not of economic importance a specialist in lepidoptera could, doubtless, name many species well known to our most active collectors. Among the butterflies may be mentioned such forms as Argynnis aphrodite, A. diana, A. cybele, Brenthis myrina, Grapta faunus, G. comma, and G. j-album. I had threatened to capture Basilarchia arthemis, and Vanessa milberti, and even cherished a fond hope of finding a stranded colony of Chionobas on one of the high mountains, but further exploitation of this interesting region must now be left to others. But it is extremely interesting, as showing how mixed are the faunas in these southern mountains, to point out that in the extreme southwest corner of the state Papilio thoas (Fig. 11), and the Gulf Fritillary, Agraulis vanilla, both appear to be somewhat common.

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS.

Even

A more interesting territory for the entomologist can scarcely be found than North Carolina. Most of the collectors of insects are in the north, and when these collectors have gone south at all they have gone through to Florida, Georgia, Louisiana or Texas. Consequently there is a great strip of middle ground which has never been at all adequately explored. in economic entomology nothing definite has been attempted previous to the opening of this new century. The entomologist in this state is, therefore, met by persons of every conceivable attitude toward his work, some incredulous, some interested, some contemptuous, and some indifferent. The farming classes, as a whole, however, have in recent years been brought to see the importance of this work. The wide spread of the San Jose Scale, the threatening danger of the cotton Boll-weevil, and the almost total destruction of fruit crops by the Codling Moth and Curculio in the eastern section, have brought them to a realization of its true meaning.

For the five years that the writer was located in North Carolina, he, his assistants, and a Mr. Brimley, at Raleigh, were the only active collectors known to be residing in the state. Within the last few months another collector, a native of Connecticut, was discovered. Now there are two or three school teachers who are doing a little work along this line, though in a very primitive way. Altogether, the state is, as yet, practically un

explored, entomologically.

While spraying is gradually coming into vogue, the pumps are, as a rule, cheaper and more inefficient than those in use in the north. In order to get the practice started at all it has been necessary to begin at first in the simplest manner possible. But the poverty of the farming classes in past years, and the unreliability of the labor, would in any case have rendered the more expensive machines impossible. In the largest peach and plum section, where the San Jose Scale is generally distributed, barrel pumps with two leads of hose, each with a single nozzle, are principally used. Large tanks and heavy machinery could not be used here on account of the very sandy nature of the soil, through which the wheels readily sink so that heavy loads are impossible.

The generally prosperous years of recent times, and the development of enormous fruit and trucking industries throughout the south to supply the large and expanding northern markets, is giving cause for more demand for

information, about insect pests and methods of combatting them, and at the present time more places are open for the employment of economic entomologists in the south than any other section, so far as the writer is aware, while it goes without saying that in regard to life histories, broods, hibernation, etc., much more remains to be discovered there than in the more northern states.

In the discussion that followed the reading of this paper, the first insect that was commented upon was PLUM CURCULIO (Conotrachelus nenuphar).

Dr. Fletcher spoke in high terms of appreciation of Prof. Sherman's paper, and congratulated the Society upon the addition to its members of so able and enthusiastic an entomologist. He remarked that the Plum Curculio in Canada was kept in check almost entirely by spraying, and that jarring was rarely resorted to.

Mr. GEORGE E. FISHER had tried both methods, but preferred spraying, as it proved more effective, and had the additional advantage that a fungicide could be used with the Paris green, and thus a double result was accomplished. Mr. Willard, of Geneva, N.Y., whom he had visited, depended entirely upon jarring for the protection of his plum trees. He uses the wheelbarrow system, and employs twelve men, each with a barrow, for the purpose. As the Curculios are very susceptible to cold, the jarring is done in the early morning when they are sluggish and have a less firm grasp on their resting place. As many as a hundred of the beetles were often shaken from one tree. There was undoubtedly one advantage in jarring,-you killed the beetle for certain, whereas in spraying you only distributed poison for the insect to eat and could not be sure that he would partake of it.

Dr. FLETCHER said that the cost of the labour required for jarring was very much greater than for spraying. Good paying results were obtained by the use of the latter method, and, as Mr. Fisher had stated, there was the

great additional benefit derived from the addition of Bordeaux mixture to the Paris green or arsenate of lead. For his part, he much preferred to use, and always recommended to others, Paris green rather than the arsenate, as its conspicuous color prevented any danger of its being mistaken for anything else.

SAN JOSE SCALE.

It

Mr. G. E. FISHER, in the discussion on Prof. Sherman's paper, referred to the methods of dealing with the San Jose Scale, and first to the use of the lime, salt and sulphur mixture. He preferred to dispense with the salt as it corrodes the pumps, and in his experience the mixture destroyed the scale better without it. He used a heavy wash of the mixture, employing one pound of lime to half a pound of sulphur in each gallon of wash. should be cooked for two hours, not for one only, as was the common practice. He made use of the steam from a threshing engine for the purpose, and cooked twelve barrels at a time, in order to have an abundant supply both for himself and his neighbours. The test of the boiling was that the mixture should finally turn green.

The results were most satisfactory. An orchard of one hundred trees of all sorts, badly infested with the scale, was treated three or four years ago with the wash made in the manner just mentioned and was sprayed thoroughly; no scales have been found there since. The wash should be applied by the middle of April, not later; he had found it safer to do the work from the middle of March to the middle of April, if later injury was done to the opening buds.

Prof. SHERMAN expressed the opinion that it was best to apply the wash. as late as was safe, as he found that it stuck to the trees better and did good work for a longer time. His mixture consisted of 20 lbs. of lime, 17 lbs. of sulphur and 10 lbs. of salt to each 50 gallons. In an orchard containing 20,000 peach trees the wash had been tried both with and without the salt, and the results when the salt was included were much better than without it. The boiling was done for at least one hour and the spray was applied while hot. The advantage from the salt was that it made the wash stick better.

Prof. LOCHHEAD read the following paper in which he gave an account of his recent experiments in treatment for the scale.

EXPERIMENTS AGAINST THE SAN JOSE SCALE IN 1905.

BY WM. LOCHHEAD, PROFESSOR OF BOTANY, ONTARIO AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE, GUELPH.

During the eight years that the San Jose Scale has been in Ontario many remedies have been devised and applied for its extermination. Among the early remedies were whale oil soap, kerosene and kerosene emulsion, potash solution, soda solution, and dilute crude petroleum. All of these were only partially successful. The whale oil soap was a most effective destroyer of scale and a tonic for the tree, but was too expensive for the ordinary fruitgrower to use. The potash and soda solutions were not sufficiently effective against the scale to make them favorite remedies. Kerosene, either pure or dilute, was too unsafe, and was soon discarded. The kerosene emulsion, although quite effective in controlling the moving larvæ, was not at all

adapted as a remedy for the scale under other conditions, and hence was abandoned. During the last few years new remedies have appeared and have been remarkably successful. Probably the most effective of these is the limesulphur wash. Various combinations of this wash have been tried, in order to determine the most satisfactory remedy for the scale, from the standpoint of both effectiveness and cheapness.

The following are the formulæ which have been usually adopted in Ontario for the preparation of these different combinations of the lime-sulphur wash:

The Lime-Sulphur Wash (fire or steam boiled):

Fresh lime

Sulphur (flowers)

Water

20 pounds.

15 pounds.
40 gallons.

With warm water make the sulphur into a paste; put in the lime and add about 15 gallons of warm water with stirring. The sulphur made into a paste may be added after the lime has been slaked. Boil for an hour and a half in a kettle or in a barrel with live steam. Make up to 40 gallons with hot water; strain into spray tank and apply while warm.

Some of our fruit-growers obtained excellent results by using larger proportions of lime and sulphur to the barrel, namely, 35 of lime and 20 sulsulphur; 25 lime and 20 of sulphur. The time given to the cooking of the lime-sulphur wash is quite different in different localities, and even by fruitgrowers in the same localities. In some cases the wash is boiled for an hour and a half to two hours, in other cases it is boiled for one hour, and many state that they have obtained good results by boiling for only one-half hour. Lime-sulphur Wash (self-cooked):

ware.

Formula No. 1 Recommended by Mr. A. N. Brown, Wyoming, Dela

35 pounds of best stone lime.
17 pounds flowers of sulphur.

40 gallons water.

(1) Put the 17 pounds of sulphur into a vessel, add two gallons boiling water, a little at a time, stirring vigorously all the while until a fine paste is obtained.

(2) Put the 35 pounds of lime in another vessel, large enough to hold 40 gallons, pour into this lime 12 gallons boiling water; now add the sulphur paste previously prepared. Very quickly cover the barrel with a heavy burlap sack, having placed an old hoe into it first; now allow it to cook for 30 minutes. Do not stir, as that reduces the heat by letting in cold air, but with the hoe raise it from the bottom occasionally so that it does not run together and burn before the lime is thoroughly slaked. Nothing must be done to interrupt the cooking process, as that would affect the final quality of the wash.

(3) After this mixture has cooked 30 minutes, add 28 gallons of warm water, not necessarily boiling. Strain into the spray tank, and apply while warm, as in this condition it will flow through the spray pump nozzles more easily than when the wash gets cold. It will also remain in solution much more thoroughly when it is warm than when it cools.

Formula No. 2.

25 pounds good stone lime.
20 pounds flowers of sulphur.
12 pounds sal soda.

40 gallons water.