100 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE 



clover plants; in many cases the leaves were entirely destroyed, giving 

 the border of the field a decidedly brown appearance. Fully one-half of 

 the plants were more or less affected. 



The corn smut experiments have been continued along the lines men- 

 tioned in the last report. Work in the herbarium has been increased 

 somewhat by large collections of edible and poisonous fungi of the region 

 about the college. 



Farmer's Institutes were attended during the fall at Marquette, Iron 

 JRiver, Norway, and Stephenson. The round-up Institute at St. Louis 

 was also attended in March. 



C. F. WHEELER, 



ConsuUuig Botanist. 

 Aghicultueal College, Mich., ) 

 Mne 30, 1897. \ 



. REPORT OF THE CONSULTING ZOOLOGIST. 



Professor Cli)iton D. Smith, Director of Exjjeriment Statio7i: 



Sir — I have the honor to submit the following report for the year end- 

 ing November 30, 1897: 



In December, 1896, when I assumed the direction of this office, the 

 Station was without an assistant entomologist owing to the recent resig- 

 nation of Gager C. Davis, M. S., who had removed to California on ac- 

 count of his wife's health. Steps were taken at once to secure a com- 

 petent assistant for the position thus vacated, and the Station may be 

 considered fortunate in obtaining the services of Rufus H. Pettit, B. S. A. 

 (Cornell), who was then serving as Assistant State Entomologist of Min- 

 nesota, and who reported for work here early in January. He has proved 

 himself a most competent and conscientious entomologist, and a very 

 large share of the work of the season has been left in his hands, as was 

 contemplated when I consented to take charge of the office, my own time 

 being fully occupied with the class work pertaining to my departments 

 in the College. Nevertheless, the work of the year proved to be more 

 arduous than was expected by anyone, and in spite of the fact that only 

 one-half of Mr. Pettit's time and none of my own could be claimed by the 

 Station, in reality both of us have given much more than was due, being 

 compelled in some cases to neglect class work in order to accomplish for 

 the Station what seemed imperative. 



The discovery early in the year 1897 that the San Jos^ Scale was firmly 

 settled in at least one county of the State led to further investigation, 

 which proved eventually that this pest had been introduced in at least 

 a dozen localities in the southern half of the State, and in most cases had 

 become firmly established and was in danger of spreading widely.* 



One of the first results of the San Jos^ Scale agitation in Michigan was 

 a flood of inquiries as to the character and appearance of the pest, to- 



*For a list of these localities and other data relating to the subject, see a paper read by the 

 writer before the Society of Economic Entomologists, at Detroit, August, 1897, and published in 

 the Proceedings of that society. 



