142 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



Inspector and fortunately no threatening pests were found. There 

 is grave danger of the introduction of the Gypsy Moth into this 

 Slate, and it is desirable that the United States Congress arrange 

 to make ample provision for placing under the United States Sec 

 retary of Agriculture (his work, which is of great national import- 

 ance. The State of Pennsylvania stands ready to act with her sister 

 states and the National (lovernment in quarantining against the 

 spread of such pests. If taken in time it will surely be successful, 

 and through the prevention of loss by additional pests our citizens 

 will be benefited, although they will never know the real value of 

 the scientists in preventing such losses. 



7. MAKING COLLECTIONS. 



A good, large collection of specimens is necessary for the investi 

 gations of this office, and for that reason we are glad to know that 

 provisions have been made not only for an agricultural museum in 

 connection with the Department of Agriculture in the Capitol build- 

 ing, but also for a State museum in the present Executive building 

 after its vacation by the other State officers than the State Librar 

 ian, who is to remain in that building. For three years we have 

 been striving earnestly for the establishment of a State museum, 

 and have written several articles advocating this important step 

 for advancing Natural History in behalf of our citizens. Fortun- 

 nately, Governor Pennypacker saw the importance of this and the 

 last Legislature provided for the establishment of such a museum. 

 While this is not yet organized, attention wdll no doubt be given to 

 it soon and it will become a very important adjunct to the work of 

 this office. 



The collections which we have made have covered the whole realm 

 of zoology from the lowest of the invertebrates to the highest, in 

 elusive, while the chief work has been with the economic species, 

 those which are at present supposed to be non-economic were not 

 neglected. As mentioned before, these specimens are preserved for 

 permanent reference with abundant and accurate notes upon the 

 same, which will be useful for us or other persons at any time in 

 the future in making studies of such subjects. This is the real basis 

 of Natural History investigations in Pennsylvania. It is almost 

 incredible that during the past year this Department has either 

 received or made over 2,500 collections, many of which contain hun 

 dreds of specimens collected, and reach Accession Number 4,850. 

 It has consequently been necessary for one person to give most of 

 his time to the proper preservation of specimens and the prepara- 

 tion of notes upon the same, but as it is an excellent basis of further 

 work for this or any other kindred office, such as the State museum, 

 it has been time and effort wisely expended. 



By actual count our record accessions during the past year have 

 been 3,250. Many of these contain collections of hundreds of the 

 same kinds of individual specimens made on the same day and under 

 the same conditions, and all given the same Collection and Acces- 

 sion number. Thus we do not hesitate to say that the total number 

 of specimens collected and preserved either temporarily or perma- 

 nently in this office, either by ourselves or contributors, has been not 

 less than 100,000 individual specimens. Thse are used not only for 



