THE MONTHLY BULLETIN. 89 



conjunction with tlie work prescribed by law. In very many eases the 

 best treatments for specific troubles under given conditions have not 

 been worked out, and in order to remedy the trouble, someone must con- 

 duct experiments. The State University and the U. S. Department of 

 Agriculture are doing what they can along thase lines, but many times 

 they are unable to find opportunity for particular work. In such eases 

 the county commissioner is the logical person to take up the problem 

 and much valuable Avork has been accomplished throughout the state 

 in this manner. Co-operation between University or Department 

 experimenters and county commissioners is often a very desirable way 

 of carrying out lines of work. The results of this work should be 

 recorded in such a manner as to be available in the future, both as to 

 positive and negative results, not only to the commissioner himself, 

 but to the grower and the other experimenters as well. 



So much for the general statement of the type of information w^hich 

 our offices carry. We might spend some time going further into the 

 details of our work, but after a brief reference to the office librarv, we 

 will leave this side of the question. 



Practically all of our offices have at their immediate command a col- 

 lection of agricultural and horticultural literature, always available to 

 the public, which covers a wide range of subjects, including distribu- 

 tion and control of pests, adaptability of crops to soils and climate, cul- 

 tural methods, etc. This is usually so arranged that all the data on any 

 particular subject can quickly be gathered together. 



We hope that enough has been said to show that our offices are main- 

 tained to be of service to the farmers, not a burden to them. We would 

 make the further point, that we deal with more than the control of 

 insects; we deal with the general health of the crop, including its 

 adaptability to its natural environment, its general care, its liability to 

 infection through outside agencies, and its varietal improvement. The 

 average farmer might well make more use of our offices than he does, 

 and even the state experiment station could at times find more valuable 

 assistance from us then they do. 



In order that the information which we gather in these several ways 

 may be more easily and permanently available, we must arrive at the 

 very best system for keeping records of all work and observations. In 

 the first place there are certain official notices prescribed by law. namely, 

 notices of abatement of pests and notices of lien on property after 

 abatement. The form of the.se notices is practically the same in the 

 various counties and is similar to other legal notices, so need not be 

 given in this paper. I Avould merely say that these notices must be 

 made out Avith great care, in duplicate, and a copy, with the affidavit 

 of the inspector serving same, should be kept on file in the office. 



Referring to the more general records, it will be impossible to- 

 describe in detail the systems adopted by the several commissioners. 

 Suffice it to say that there are three main ideas around Avhich the sys- 

 tems are built up. First, the daily ledger, showing in notebook form 

 all the activities of each day separately ; second, the large size, definite, 

 record book, in Avhich various data concerning a given shipment or 

 grove are entered under prescribed headings on a single line or lines 

 acrcss the page ; such data in some cases covering as much as a year of 

 time. All work commenced during a certain week or month is entered* 



