48 Entomology. 



What appears to be a new plum pest has just been brought to our 

 attention. It mines the leaves of plums and prunes and has done 

 considerable damage in one large New York orchard. It was too 

 late when our attention was called to the insect to find it at work, 

 but it was soon located in its hibernating quarters, and we hope to 

 secure the adult insect and study its habits further next season. 

 We hope to be able to complete our study of the above minor insect 

 pests of fruit trees, forest trees and shrubs during the coming season, 

 and thus secure material for at least two bulletins. 



In the list of co-operative experiments offered to New York 

 farmers during the past season, six different experiments were sug- 

 gested by this division of the station. They were as follows : poison 

 sprays for plum and quince curculios ; spraying for grape root- 

 worm ; spraying and timely cultivation for the rose-chafer ; spraying 

 for oyster-shell and scurfy black-scale in June; all sprays for the 

 San Jose scale; and fumigation of mills for grain pests. No one 

 offered to make the co-operative experiments under the first three 

 headings. A few fruit-growers, however, sprayed the oyster-shell 

 bark-scale under our direction in June with very satisfactory re- 

 sults, and several aided us by sending in infested branches from 

 time to time, so that we might determine approximately the date 

 of hatching of the eggs. We co-operated with a few fruit-growers 

 and supplied part of the material for spraying the San Jose scale 

 with a miscible oil. In general, the results were very satisfactory. 

 One fruit-grower practically annihilated the scale on the sprayed 

 trees. We assisted in the fumigation of one flouring mill for grain 

 pests, but as the owner failed to carry out some of our recommenda- 

 tions in the preparation of the mill for fumigation, the results were 

 not very satisfactory. In this connection it might be of interest 

 to report that we have successfully fumigated single rooms, suites 

 of rooms, and in one case a whole house from cellar to garret with 

 hydrocyanic-acid-gas for household pests. 



Teaching, correspondence work and preparation of papers and 

 material for institutes, fruit-growers' meetings and fairs has occu- 

 pied a large share of our time. While all this kind of work is 

 valuable and helpful, it is taking more and more time each year 

 and leaving less time to be devoted to investigational or experi- 

 mental work. J. H. COMSTOCK, 



Professor of Entomology and General 



Invertebrate Zoology. 



M. V. SLINGERLAND, 

 Assistant Professor of Economic Entomology. 



