to be free from this pest. It is common in the State of Washington and is gradually extending up the Okanagan Valley in the State of Washington. It can only be a question of time that this pest will be found to occur in the orchards of British Columbia, particularly in the Okanagan. We cannot hope for immunity from this pest for all time, consequently from now on the growers in the lower portion of the British Columbia Okanagan Valley will have to keep a sharp lookout for its appearance, and when and where it does appear to subject it to immediate remedial

measures.

Fig. 42.-San José Scale. Female scale with young.

The CODLING MOTH is an insect of the same nature which also is gradually extending up the Valley of the Okanagan. It is closer to the British Columbia line than the San José Scale, but as yet it is not reported in the British Columbia territory of that district. Mr. W. H. Brittain, however, found an isolated centre of infestation at Armstrong, a point north of the Okanagan Lake, this summer. Mr. Thos. Cunningham, the Provincial Inspector of Fruit Pests, promptly dealt with it by collecting all the apples in the locality and boiling them in a large vat. This action is to be highly commended as it delays as much as possible the day of general infestation in the Province.

There seems little doubt, however, that the day is not very far distant when the Codling Moth, like the San José Scale, will be present in the British Columbia orchards, and it may reasonably be first expected in the Okanagan, for as soon as the young orchards in the Okanagan Valley south of the British Columbia border line come into bearing, their infestation is merely a question of time, and this in due course leads to the bearing orchard land in the southern portion of the British Columbia Okanagan District. The Okanagan Valley lying east of the Cascade Range is the channel along which the prevailing winds travel and the birds migrate.

In my brief stay in the Okanagan I found the orchard mites Bryobia and Tetranychus of economic importance. They are present also in the Lower Fraser Valley, but the dry climate of the interior seems to be more favaroble to the growth and reproduction.

The PEAR TREE BLISTER MITE was found to occur in every orchard in the Fraser Valley similarly so with the Pear Tree Slug. The latter is two brooded. The first brood this year did not appear in such numbers as to cause any material loss. The second brood appeared to be more plentiful in point of numbers, but it occurred late enough not to injure the trees, merely assisting nature to ripen the wood. Myzus cerasi and the Green Apple Aphis also occurred in the Fraser Valley but I saw no instance on mature trees where their presence was causing material harm. In this country where the seasons are long and the growth luxuriant, insects of this nature tend to check the excessive growth, and unless present in too great numbers act almost as a beneficent agency.

An insect which for the time being is called the LESSER APPLE WORM can generally be found at apple picking time occurring lightly in most orchards in the Fraser Valley. It appears to affect the Crab, Spy, Gravenstein, and King apples in particular. I have not bred this insect to the adult yet, so cannot be sure it is the same insect as occurs in a similar way in the Eastern orchards. I am hoping to bring some of these insects through the winter and work on their life history next summer.

SMALL FRUIT INSECTS.

In the Lower Fraser Valley, which is pre-eminently a small fruit and truck gardening district, the one serious pest in proportion to the injury is the Strawberry Root Weevil, Otiorhynchus ovatus. The larvae girdle the roots of the plants, causing death either by malnutrition or by exposing the plants to the drying action of sun and wind, for the deeper roots are taken off as a rule previous to the surface roots, consequently the whole root surface is forced nearer the ground surface. As a rule plantations do not suffer until the spring of the second year from planting, although I was informed locally that occasions have arisen whereby the infestation was so severe that plantations had to be plowed up previous to taking the first crop and sometimes just after the first crop was picked. Such cases are, I would fancy, the exception and not the rule, and some peculiar local dependent conditions must have been present. I have paid particular attention to the biology of this weevil this summer and am preparing a much longer and detailed report on its habits, but the general points in its life history are somewhat as follows. My notes only extend over this season, so due allowance must be made until duplicate notes are obtained next year or succeeding years.

The egg-laying period in the field began about June 15th and extended till August 22nd. The egg stage per individual laster 22-24 days. The larvae began to hatch about July 15th and continued to hatch until September 14th. The great majority of the larvae pass the winter in the half-grown larval state and emerge as the adult in the middle of June and continue emerging until the first part of July. The pupal stage like the egg stage lasts about three weeks. There is only two weeks in the year when the ground may be presumably free from the presence of larvae and that is the early part of July. I have no records of date of a second brood. The list of its food plants is a very long one, and while it has shown itself particularly fond of strawberry roots, I believe its primary food is the roots of grasses. I have taken the larvae of the weevil feeding indiscriminately upon roots of weeds and strawberries intermingling in the strawberry row.

The most satisfactory remedy that can be devised to date, when the acreage is available, is fall plowing and rotation of crops. But the unfortunate part of it is that the farms are so small, 5-10 acres, for the most part where this insect occurs

that even if rotation is individually practised it practically amounts to growing strawberries year by year on the same piece of ground. The best remedy for preventing infestation that can be suggested at present on these small farms, where the weevils have become concentrated, is to stop the production of strawberries for a year or two, cultivating the ground frequently, allowing chickens free range in the infested patch, and then when reasonably sure that the ground is clean to evolve a system entailing a barricade against the weevil which from the structure of its wing covers cannot fly and is doomed to walk the earth. A wooden boarding with an overlap of tin on the under surface of which is placed some sticky material such as “Tree Tanglefoot" might be employed to advantage on a small farm. The framework could be made permanent and by the annual application of some sticky material for two months in the summer it might be made the means of keeping a great majority of the weevils out. One grower, near Portland, Oregon, was practising some such scheme as this, using tar or some mixture with tar on his tin, but I do not think it proved entirely successful. The principle is still an experiment both as regards efficiency and cost of maintenance.

The cheapest and most efficient mixture experimented with this summer to be used on the barricade was a mixture of resin gum and boiled oil in a proportion of 3 to 1. This mixture must be applied direct to the tin surface and not to the wood, for the wood absorbs the oil and the plan quickly becomes worthless. Commercial Tanglefoot will give good results, provided every care is given the question of preventing rain splashing up on to its surface. Rain-splashed it soon becomes worthless, but protected, and even on a wood surface, its holds its efficiency, most of the summer, on a single application. Its price might prove prohibitory to the general grower.

Unless some such plan like this is devised it seems little use growing strawberries two years in succession on a small acre farm, for the profit to the acre is liable to be so reduced that it is hardly worth while growing the plants. I should assume that not much more than one acre in ten should be planted to strawberries in a weevil infested district, perhaps then a system of rotation could be arranged with the neighboring farmers if they were all interested in the same way.

Another insect reported to me by correspondence from Grand Prairie, B.C., is the Currant Fruit Miner (Epochra canadensis), which is present throughout the Western states and British Columbia, and where Currants and Gooseberries are being grown is a decided pest, the worst of its kind for the fruits it attacks.

THE CURRENT BORER (Aegeria tipuliformis) is another pest which would assume large proportions if the crop was more planted. It is commonly to be found in the Lower Fraser Valley.

TRUCK CROPS.

Fully 75 per cent. of the enquiries at the Agassiz Experimental Farm have been in connection with the Cabbage Maggot. I have invariably replied giving the Carbolic Acid Emulsion as a remedy and the Tarred Discs. On two occasions reports were returned that the Carbolic solution had given good results when applied early. The truck gardeners around Vancouver suffer severely from this class of insect.

I have also received a report, with specimens enclosed, of the larvae of some elater beetle-wireworms-from Mission, which were working on the tubers of potatoes in the ground. The potatoes on being dug were found to have these "worms" inside.

In connection with Potato insects I would like to draw attention to the approach of the Colorado Potato Beetle (Leptinotarsa decemlineata) to the boundaries of British Columbia. Some ten years ago this beetle became imported and localized near a place called Nez Percé, in Idaho. It has now extended its territory into Washington, so much so that the south-east corner of the state is generally affected. An isolated report was received by Professor Melander, of Pullman, by correspondence this summer describing an insect which left little doubt of its nature on the presence of this beetle at a place called Metaline Falls, a point some ten odd miles south of the British Columbia border line, in the Columbia River Valley, opening into the Lower Kootenay country. If this report is correct we may expect to receive reports of its presence in British Columbia in the near future, at any rate it is in the same class as the Codling Moth and the San Jose Scale and may be expected in the course of years under natural conditions.

Except for another outbreak of the Californian Tortoiseshell butterfly (Vanessa californica), in the Kootenay country, confining its depredations to the bush and cultivated places, this about completes the record of my British Columbia notes on insects occurring during the past six months. I hope in a few days to make out my report on these same insects as mentioned much more fully and explanatory.

ARSENITE OF ZINC AS A SUBSTITUTE FOR ARSENATE OF LEAD. L. CAESAR, B.A., B.S.A., GUELPH,

Arsenite of Zinc is a very fine whitish, fluffy powder, much lighter than Paris Green. It contains approximately forty per cent. of arsenious acid, which is about three times as much as Arsenate of Lead contains. It costs twenty cents a pound. f.o.b. and is manufactured by the California Chemical Spray Co., Watsonville, California. For some years this company has been testing the value of Arsenite of Zinc, and claims that the results have been highly satisfactory. Prof. Melander, of Pullman, Washington, in limited tests states that it gave excellent results against Codling Moth. Prof. Cooley, of Montana Agricultural Experiment Station, says that in his experiments it controlled Potato Beetles as well as Paris Green did, and that it is a very stable compound, no arsenical injury taking place to the crown or bark of trees, even when wounds were made and bandages kept moist with the mixture were applied. Arsenate of Lead and all other arsenicals tested caused more or less injury when thus used.*

Statements like these led me to make some tests at Guelph this year, and to urge other parties in various parts of the province to co-operate so that a comparison of results might give some valuable information.

The first test was for Codling Moth. Alternate trees in two old orchards were sprayed with Arsenite of Zinc and Arsenate of Lead. A little over 1 lb. of the the former to 40 gallons of dilute lime-sulphur (1.008 sp. gr.) was used and 3 lbs. of the latter to the same amount and strength of lime-sulphur. In my absence my colleague, Mr. A. W. Baker, did the spraying and took the necessary pains to see that it was thorough. Examinations of the trees at various times throughout the season showed that while both mixtures gave excellent results the trees sprayed with Arsenite of Zinc were a little cleaner than the others, only very rarely an apple being wormy. Unsprayed trees had much wormy fruit.

Mr. Beckett, an extensive grower of apples at Hamilton, and Mr. J. E. Smith, of Simcoe, co-operated in tests against the Codling Moth with Arsenite of Zinc. The Bulletin No. 103, Agr. Expt. Sta. Pullman, Washington.

*Journal of Econ. Ent., Vol. 5, No. 2.

former used 100 lbs. of the poison and reported that in his opinion it was quite as satisfactory as Arsenate of Lead; the latter said that he was also pleased with the results, but did not think his tests sufficiently extensive to draw reliable conclusions.

My second test was against Potato Beetles. Mr. G. J. Spencer conducted this for me. On one plot he used 1 lb. Arsenite of Zine to 40 gallons Bordeaux mixture, and on another 3 lbs. Arsenate of Lead to the same amount of Bordeaux. Both poisons destroyed all the beetles, so that perfectly satisfactory results were obtained.

In no case, whether combined with the lime-sulphur or with Bordeaux, did we see any evidence of burning; moreover, the fungicidal value of the lime-sulphur did not seem to have been lessened, because even the Snow apples that were sprayed were almost entirely free from Scab, quite as free as those sprayed with Arsenate of Lead and lime-sulphur. As the potatoes were early varieties and ripened before there was any injury from Blight we cannot speak of the effect from this disease, so destructive this year to late potatoes.

The result of this year's experiments would therefore go to show that Arsenite of Zine may prove to be a very excellent and safe insecticide and may even supersede Arsenate of Lead, especially as, apart from its poisoning merits, it has several advantages over the latter:

(1) It can be easily stored, being a powder, whereas Arsenate of Lead is a paste and should not be allowed to freeze or dry out.

(2) It takes less time to prepare for the tank, all that is necessary being to mix up the desired amount in a pail with a little water and then pour it into the tank, whereas Arsenate of Lead, being a paste, takes a good deal of stirring in water to bring it into suspension.

(3) It can be manufactured more cheaply than Arsenate of Lead; one pound costing 20 cents, but each pound contains as much arsenious acid as about three pounds of Arsenate of Lead, and therefore is equivalent in killing power to that amount. As Arsenate of Lead costs at least 10 cents a pound, an equal strength of Arsenite of Zinc would cost only two-thirds this amount.

(4) When used alone in water we found that it remained in suspension considerably longer than Arsenate of Lead, this being due probably to the greater fineness of the particles of which it is composed. When added to lime-sulphur this advantage was lost as it settled somewhat rapidly, thus indicating that constant agitations would be necessary. In sticking qualities it is apparently slightly inferior to Arsenate of Lead.

Whether any chemical action takes place when it is added to lime-sulphur is difficult to determine for certain, as in tests made by the chemists very little if any change could be detected.

Although this season's work has given me a very favorable opinion of Arsenite of Zinc, I should not care to recommend anyone to use it except experimentally for a year or two yet until we see how it will act under different conditions of moisture and temperature. In conversation with some men from the United States I was told that they had heard that the results there this year were not satisfactory. Whether this be correct or not, it is probable that the insecticide has been tested in many states and reports should soon begin to come in. These reports ought to give us information as to the real value of Arsenite of Zinc. Should it prove to be very satisfactory, there is little doubt that it would soon be manufactured in many parts of the United States and Canada, so that it could be procured without the present high cost for freight or express.