During the hottest summer weather coccinellid and hymenopterous parasites greatly reduce their numbers, but as cold weather comes on the parasites lessen their activities and the aphids become so abundant that their host plants are overloaded, forcing the plant lice to migrate in search of fresh food. By this time the new crop of fall wheat is well started and again the migrants find the ideal conditions which they are seeking. Observations were made in infested grain fields during the first week of November of the present season, and, whenever an infested stool of volunteer wheat was found, the wingless lice could be seen crawling away from it in all directions. Thus one good-sized stool of volunteer grain will reinfest much of the new crop within a radius of 10 to 25 feet and sometimes to greater distances. It is a significant fact that, whenever an area in which the wheat has been destroyed by the wheat aphis is examined in the spring, the old dried volunteer plants from which the infestation started can always be found.

About October 15, true males and females are produced and egglaying is carried on until very late in the fall. On December 2, 1914, wheat plants were seen which were covered with egg-laying females. even though the thermometer had registered 11 degrees below zero in that vicinity on November 15. The eggs are deposited for the most part upon the leaf blade upon which the female is feeding, but are also placed upon dried stems and upon the soil. The old volunteer plants and bunches of blue joint have upon them the greatest number of eggs, but many are also laid upon the small fall wheat plants by the crawling migrants.

CONTROL

CLEAN TILLAGE OF SUMMER FALLOWED FIELDS.-The life-history and habits as just discussed would naturally suggest clean tillage of summer fallowed wheat land as the most feasible method of control. That this is the right method may be emphasized by the statement that no wheat aphis injury has ever been found except on summer fallowed land where volunteer grain and grasses have been allowed to grow. Fall wheat on sod land in heavily infested localities has never been injured even when adjoining fields have been completely destroyed.

It is a very simple matter to advise that the wheat aphis can be completely controlled by keeping summer fallowed fields absolutely free from volunteer grain and grasses, but it is often a difficult and expensive proposition for the farmer to put the advice into practice. The ordinary method of procedure in the handling of summer fallowed wheat land in Montana is to plow in the spring and to follow with a varying number of diskings to kill vegetation and to conserve moisture.

But even if repeated cultivations are give with the ordinary disk harrow, some volunteer wheat and much blue joint grass is very likely to escape and only a few such plants are necessary to bring about an infestation of wheat aphis in localities where it is abundant. Moreover, in the most heavily infested districts of Fergus County, soil and climatic conditions are such that frequent diskings during the summer months are not desirable, for when the soil becomes finely pulverized it blows and drifts badly the following winter. Several of the less common methods of obtaining clean summer fallowed fields are, therefore, discussed with particular reference to their bearing on wheat aphis control.

USE OF SPECIAL TOOLS.-It has already been said that the ordinary disk harrow allows some vegetation to escape. There are now on the market tools of the duck-foot cultivator type which are composed of sets of overlapping V-shaped knives which will cut all vegetation just below the surface of the soil. These are much more efficient than the disk as destroyers of vegetation, are of light draft and do not pulverize the soil as much as the disk harrow. They have the disadvantage of not working well in rocky ground.

The use of the hand hoe in destroying vegetation which has escaped the first diskings is practiced by some growers, who report it a cheaper and more thorough method than to continue the disking.

LATE PLOWING.-In discussing the wheat aphis with many growers, a surprisingly large number have remarked that fields plowed early, that is, in April and May and up to June 15, were severely injured, while nearby fields, plowed after June 15, were uninjured. One man started plowing on May 15, but at that time plowed only an area of a few rods wide around the field. On July 4, plowing was resumed and carried to a finish. The following spring the early plowed area was badly injured by the wheat aphis, while the late plowed area was practically uninjured. Such cases are easily explained. On the early plowed land volunteer grain and grasses have an opportunity to start up during the season of rainy weather that follows plowing, thus bringing about inviting conditions to the migrants which are flying in June and July. In late plowed fields all volunteer grains and grasses that have started during the rainy season are turned under and the field is left bare during the migration period.

Some growers disk the stubble early in the spring and then do not start plowing until after June 15. The disking has a tendency to hasten the germination of grains and weed seed and makes plowing easier.

Some of the most successful growers plow twice, a shallow plowing in early spring and a deeper plowing after June 15, well toward the close of the spring rains. Such fields are remarkably free from vol

unteer grains and grasses and are said to give increased yields over once-plowed fields. No wheat aphis injury has ever been seen on double-plowed fields.

Late plowed fields can undoubtedly be kept free from vegetation. with much less labor than early plowed fields and this practice, when it can be carried on without interfering with economic farm practices, is recommended in districts where the wheat aphis is abundant.

PASTURING. Some farmers allow a small band of sheep or other stock to graze on summer fallowed land and where vegetation is kept down in this manner wheat aphis injury has not been noticed.

In November of the present year, an 80-acre field of winter wheat was seen which was so badly infested with wheat aphis that there seemed to be absolutely no hope of the crop maturing if left as it was. The field was everywhere dotted with clumps of volunteer wheat, from which females were migrating to the new crop, and already nearly every young wheat plant was infested with egg-laying females. A band of 1,500 sheep was turned into this field and in a short time had grazed off nearly all vegetation. Whether a new growth will be produced that will be free from wheat aphis remains to be seen, but it is certain that a great majority of the plant lice and their eggs have been destroyed and this method gives some promise in the handling of fields that are already badly infested.

CROPS THAT MAY BE SOWN ON GROUND WHERE GRAIN HAS BEEN DESTROYED BY THE WHEAT APHIS.-Wheat aphis injury generally appears early enough in the spring so that destroyed areas may be seeded to spring grains or other crops.

Spring wheat may be safely planted if infested wheat plants are first plowed under. This was tried in several fields during the past season and in no instance was the spring crop injured. Spring wheat and barley drilled in among infested plants have been badly injured. and this practice is considered decidedly unsafe.

Probably the safest and easiest crop to put in on such land is oats upon which the wheat aphis has never been seen to feed. One grower whose 80-acre field of fall wheat was completely infested with aphis in the spring merely drilled in oats without previous preparation of the soil. The young oats grew side by side with the heavily infested wheat, but were never attacked and at harvest the crop yielded 50 bushels to the acre. By early summer all of the wheat in the field had been killed.

This concluded the reading of papers for the meeting and after the usual closing business session the meeting adjourned.

A. F. BURGESS, Secretary.

Proceedings of the Fifth Annual Meeting of the Section on Apiary Inspection

The Fifth Annual Meeting of Apiary Inspectors was called to order by the Chairman, Dr. E. F. Phillips, at the Southern Hotel, Columbus, Ohio, Monday evening, December 27, 1915.

The meeting showed the largest attendance of any yet held. This was undoubtedly due to the fact that it did not conflict with the meeting of any other section and was held at the hotel headquarters of the Association.

The principal things brought out in the address of the Chairman and in the other papers presented were fully discussed and led to the following action by the Section:

It was moved by Dr. Headlee and carried by vote, that it is the sense of this Section that the Association of Economic Entomologists admit apiary inspectors to associate membership. Dr. Headlee was appointed to confer with the Association on this matter.

A motion by Dr. Headlee was carried by vote that this Section go on record in favor of apiary inspection work being placed under central authority and under the direction of one having had a broad entomological training.

It was moved and carried by vote that the Section adopt the suggestion of the Chairman that inspectors report disease conditions of apiaries along state boundaries to Dr. E. F. Phillips at Washington.

Upon motion by Mr. Millen a committee was appointed to draw up a uniform system of reporting apiary inspections. Mr. Shaw, Professor Dean and Mr. Millen were appointed on this committee.

By vote of the Section, Dr. T. J. Headlee was recommended to the Association of Economic Entomologists for Chairman of the Section and Mr. N. E. Shaw was reëlected Secretary.

THE FUNCTION OF THE APIARY INSPECTION SECTION

By E. F. PHILLIPS

It is obvious that the formation of a section in the Association of Economic Entomologists for consideration of the problems in apiary inspection was a long step toward the proper recognition of the place of beekeeping in economic entomology. If we look back only a few years we will realize how impracticable it would then have been to get together a group of the economic entomologists of the United States who had any interest in beekeeping.

For a society to undertake improvement in the apiary inspection service is a large problem, in spite of the fact that we all realize the need of improvement in many places. We can scarcely hope to correct such defects as may exist without in some way reaching the men at work in the field and I would therefore respectfully commend for your deliberation the best means of reaching these men. It is impossible to get all the inspectors and deputies together once a year for a conference because of the great distances to be traveled and the lack of funds to pay their expenses as an official trip. Furthermore, most of the men engaged in the work are not members of the Association of Economic Entomologists and many, not being trained entomologists, are not eligible to membership under the present requirements. It is a pertinent question whether the Association should assume to have a section for such a special phase of economic entomology without making a special requirement to fit that section. Theoretically, it may be admitted that the standards for admission should be kept high, practically, it is a pity for an organization to limit its usefulness by keeping out men who need the help that they might well get from the organization. There is also room for debate on the question whether an organization is strengthened by artificial barriers of admission or whether its entire strength does not lie in its usefulness. The associate list might profitably be increased, in so far as this section is concerned, to include all apiary inspectors who care to join.

It is not easy to say what is the greatest need in apiary inspection but, after having traveled with a number of the inspectors, I should incline to the view that a reduction in the waste of time and more system in the work are most needed. To spend too much time in helping the individual beekeeper and to visit longer than necessary is a too common fault. In fact, some inspectors do little more than to make a series of visits to the members of the beekeepers' association every year, thus giving time to men who scarcely need the inspector and depriving others of less opportunity. There is often much waste in flitting from place to place. There is little this section can do to put a stop to these unwise things except to give public utterance to a condemnation of the practice.

As is well known, the Bureau of Entomology has for several years advised placing the apiary inspection under some already existing office, usually with the State Entomologist. It can be stated without fear of successful contradiction that in states where there is a competent experienced supervisor, the results are vastly better than in states where the inspector is a free lance. One important consideration is the keeping of adequate inspection records and these will not be properly kept unless there is an established central office. Case