No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 133 



boiling than calcium carbonate. Other experiments have beta pet 

 formed with variations of the methods of making the lime-sulphur 

 washes and keeping the same different lengths of time after they 

 were made. Also a few experiments were made with the various 

 commercial insecticides, as indicated above, and nearly all of these 

 have been published in our Monthly Bulletins, but we now have such 

 a complete series of facts bearing on the San Jose Scale in this State, 

 and such a certain method of controlling the same, that we are en- 

 couraged to put these together in the form of a Special Bulletin on 

 the "San Jose" Scale," which will be issued during the summer of 

 1906. 



Last summer experiments were conducted for Potato Blight and 

 Potato Beetles, using various kinds of fungicides and insecticides, 

 and especially a preparation sold on the market known as "Bug 

 Death." Our experiments proved conclusively that this latter ma- 

 terial is useless and not effective, and is not to be regarded as good 

 either for Blight or Beetles, as is the standard remedy of Paris 

 Green and Bordeaux Mixture. 



Experiments on Cabbage Root Worms and other root worms of 

 Cruciferous plants showed that carbolic emulsion applied early 

 is one of the best remedies and possibly also preventives of this 

 pest. 



Experiments were performed with Melon pests, both Blight and 

 Insects, and it was found that the Blight is readily controlled by 

 early applications of Bordeaux Mixture, and Beetles can be killed 

 by adding either arsenate of lead or a good quality of Paris Green 

 to the Bordeaux. The Melon Beetles are also repelled by dusting 

 with ashes and coal oil. 



Experiments were carried on for the Peach-tree Borer with a new 

 insecticide which we used in this State for the first time. This 

 consists of nothing but one ounce of concentrated lye in each gallon 

 of boiling water, and a quart of this mixture poured over the trunk 

 of the tree one foot above the root after the mass of gum has been 

 cleared away with a hoe. This will kill the Peach-tree Borers and 

 prevent the necessity of cutting them out. It is the best and cheap 

 est means of combatting this pest that has ever been proposed. 



Experiments with the Plum Curculio were begun late, but we 

 had some very valuable results in spraying with arsenate of lead, 

 which proved a valuable means of preventing loss by this pest. 

 This material, in proportion of three pounds of arsenate in one 

 hundred gallons of water, gave surprising results. Ninety per cent, 

 more plums dropped off unsprayed trees than from those that were 

 sprayed. Nearly all the experiments and investigations mentioned 

 are published in detail in our Bulletins and these notes are here 

 offered merely as a resume' of some of the important work we have 

 accomplished. 



3. PUBLICATIONS. 



The publications of this office have been the Monthly Bulletin 

 of the Division of Zoology, (2) the Zoological Quarterly Bulletin, 

 (3) Special Bulletins and (4) Special Newspaper Articles. 



We have averaged more than one and one-half pages of printed 

 matter per day during the past three years. However, the corres- 

 pondence and other work of the office became so imperative through 



