DIVISION OF ENTOMOLOGY. 207 



SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS. 



Under this head is classified the investigation and introduction of 

 foreign beneficial insects, a subject which has assumed in recent years 

 very great importance. Tlie supervision of quarantine operations 

 will also come in this section, as well as the propagation and distribu- 

 tion of fungous diseases of insects and the general investigation of 

 this important subject. For this work it will be necessary to secure 

 the services of two high-grade experts, one to have charge of insect 

 introductions and quarantine, and the other to be an insect patholo- 

 gist. Relative to the last, it may be said that this office has been able 

 to carry out its work with insect diseases only through the courtesy 

 and with the material aid of the Bureau of Animal Industry and 

 experts in other offices of this Department. This Avork is of sufficient 

 importance to demand tlie appointment of an expert who shall be able 

 to devote all his time to the subject. The artificial use of contagious 

 insect diseases to control insect pests is a field which is constantly 

 demanding investigation, and its importance perhaps is much greater 

 than has been hitherto realized. 



INSECT LABORATORY AND EXPERIMENTAL GARDEN. 



A small and very inadequate experimental garden is now" attached 

 to the insectary of this Department. It is jiroposed to secure a larger 

 tract for the establishment of an experimental orchard and garden in 

 connection with the Washington office, to facilitate and give a prac- 

 tical feature to the local breeding and insecticide operations. This 

 will necessitate the employment of a gardener and laborer. 



APICULTURAL INVESTIGATIONS. 



In apiculture, it is proposed to specially investigate the subject of 

 artificial pasturage, which hitherto has not received the attention it 

 deserves. A series of experiments will be entered upon to determine 

 what crops may be profitably employed to fill the gaps in the honey 

 yield, or to create artificial pasturage for apiaries, and an effort will 

 be made in this connection to introduce honey plants from abroad. It 

 is proposed to import and test various races or species of bees that are 

 now little or not at all known in this country ; for example, the race 

 native to the Caucasus and those found in Dalmatia, Austria, and nota- 

 bly the large bee of the East (Ains dorsaia), to be obtained from the 

 Philippine Islands. The breeding of crosses will be continued, and 

 the collection of statistics is proposed. 



SERICULTURAL INVESTIGATIONS. 



It is desired to make this a special section of the entomological 

 work of the Department. To carry out the investigations increased 

 appropriations are desired. For the year 1904 it is the intention to 

 follow up the work outlined for the year 1903, to establish and equip 

 experimental stations in the South, to enter into cooperative work in 

 silk raising with some of the agricultural experiment stations which 

 have expressed the wish to assist us in the investigation of silk culture, 

 and to establish in the city of AVashington or elsewhere a practical 

 reeling plant, so that the silk cocoons produced in small quantities 

 can be purchased and reeled and tlie j)roduct marketed. 



