202 DEPARTMENTAL EEPORTS. 



and life-histoiy studies will be made in Texas, the present i-ange of 

 the insect carefully mapped, and the means of possibly checking 

 its further spread determined. The work with the codling moth in 

 the Northwest will be continued in accordance with ])resent plans, 

 and will be made the subject of a special report, which will be pub- 

 lished as a bulletin of this office. The special Avork with the grass- 

 hopper fungus will be continued through the summer, and if results 

 warrant will be given a further test next year to fully determine its 

 value. The many lines of work with foreign insects and importa- 

 tions will be extended and continued. No effort will be omitted to 

 establish and disseminate the Asiatic enemy of the San Jose scale. 

 The cooperation of the leading experiment stations throughout the 

 country has been promised, and the beetles have multiplied to such 

 an extent in the breeding cages on the Department grounds that 

 it has already been possible to begin sending out batches to station 

 officials. These beetles will be sent to many places in the Eastern 

 United States this fall and given careful attention during the autumn 

 and winter, and the work of spreading this useful beetle will be con- 

 tinued the following summer. In the same way the Austrian lad^'bird 

 enemy of plant lice will be sent out iu batches to different Slates this 

 fall, and will be followed up b}' similar work the following year. The 

 same may be said of the other parasitic enemies which we are attempt- 

 ing to establish in California for the benefit of fruit growers. New 

 work of this kind will also be taken up, special attention being given, 

 among other things, to the European enemies of the gipsy moth and 

 the brown-tail molh. The great interest aroused throughout the 

 country in mosquito investigation and methods for their exlei-iuina- 

 tion will be taken advantage of to encourage communities everywhere 

 to take hold vigorously of this problem. Assistance will be rendered 

 by this office, by advice and the sending of published descriptions of 

 methods and by i^ersonal inspection where feasible and necessary. 

 The role played by 1 hese and other insects as conveyers of disease, 

 which has been under investigation for a number of years past, will 

 be continued, its importance demanding for it all the time and force 

 available. The general work of investigation of insect enemies of 

 grains and fruits will be continued, covering both the cereals of the 

 Northern States and the crops especially appertaining to the South, 

 such as sugar cane, cotton, rice, and tobacco. 



The general subject of insects affecting vegetable crops will be inves- 

 tigated from time to time on the line of work that has been done in 

 past years under this head. As soon as certain observations which are 

 now under way on the life histories of certain insects affecting aspar- 

 agus are finished, a popular account, as complete as possible, will be 

 prepared on all insects of this class. This work will be followed, it 

 is planned, by a similar consideration of the principal insect enemies 

 of beans, peas, and other edible leguminous crop plants. Some of the 

 insects wiiicli attack cabbage and other cruciferous crops, and melons, 

 squashes, and other cucurbits, are extremely difficult to combat. 

 Arrangements have therefore been made to cai'ry on experiments look- 

 ing toward better means of controlling some of the moi-e important 

 insect enemies of these two classes of vegetable crops. New insect 

 enemies of truck crops are constantly being discovered and will be 

 studied as opportunity offers and necessity requires. Insects which 

 attack small fruits will be studied, as in previous years, and expei'i- 

 ments will be undertaken to devise new methods of controlling them. 



The work for 1003 on th<> insect enemies of forest and forest prod- 



