REPORT OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST I908 II 



through the mails or by express. This latter has undoubtedly had 

 some effect upon the correspondence. 1470 letters, 171 postals, 42 

 circulars, 408 packages were sent through the mails and 39 pack- 

 ages were shipped by express. 



Nursery certificates. We have continued, as in past years, to 

 indorse upon the request of the State Commissioner of Agriculture 

 nursery certificates issued by his office and destined for points in 

 the state of \'irginia, since the Virginia authorities insist that all 

 certificates accompanying shipments of nursery stock to that state 

 shall be indorsed by an official entomologist. The following is a 

 list of firms to whom these nursery certificates were issued dur- 

 ing 1908: 



Stark Bros. Nursery Co., George A. Sweet, Bryant Bros., all of 

 Dansville; George S. Josselyn, T. S. Hubbard Co., F. E. Schiff- 

 erli, Lewis Roesch, Foster & Griffith, all of Fredonia ; The Chase 

 Nurseries, Henry Sears & Co., The M. H. Harmon Co., H. E. 

 Merrell, all of Geneva; E. Aloody & Sons, Lockport; Jackson Per- 

 kins, Newark; Allen Nursery Co., Brown Bros. Co., Herrick Seed 

 Co., Perry Nursery Co., First National Nurseries, Chase Bros. Co., 

 Ellwanger & Barry, Western N. Y. Nursery Co., Rochester Nurs- 

 ery Co., FI. S. Taylor Nursery Co., Glen Bros., all of Rochester; 

 F. R. Pierson Co., Tarrytown. 



General. We would acknowledge at this time our indebtedness 

 to Dr L. O. Howard, Chief of the Bureau of Entomology, United 

 States Department of Agriculture, and his associates for identify- 

 ing a number of insects. Several correspondents have rendered 

 valuable services in securing desirable material for the collection. 

 There has been, as in previous year§, a most helpful cooperation on 

 the part of all interested in the work of this office. 



The tacit limitations of earlier years confined the studies of the 

 economic entomologist to insect enemies of well recognized farm 

 crops, such as corn, potatoes, fruit, or to those forms annoying or 

 injurious to domestic animals. The later extensive insect depre- 

 dations upon shade and forest trees have served to emphasize the 

 practical imix)rtance of this field. The more recent discoveries 

 that malaria and yellow fever are transmitted by mosquitos, and 

 that typhoid fever and other grave intestinal diseases may be con- 

 veyed by house flies, has made the entomologist a most welcome 

 ally of the sanitarian. Furthermore, careful investigations of in- 

 jurious and dangerous insects have repeatedly demonstrated the 

 value of such studies as a necessar}- preliminary to practical con- 



