252 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



Methods of preventing smut in barley, G. Grotenfelt (Tre metoder alt fiird- 

 rifva brandsvamp fran Lorn. Mustiala, 1896, pp. 10). — Gives results of culture trials 

 with barley treated with (1) hot-water method, (2) Ceres powder, (3) carbon-bisulphid 

 method. All the methods were effective in preventing smut; the yield was increased 

 and the quality of the crop improved. 



Spraying, F. ('. Sears ( Utah Sta. Bul.49,pp. 26, figs. 12). — This bulletin describes 

 some of the. more common fungus diseases and insect enemies of orchard fruits and 

 suggests remedies for their prevention. Formulas are given for the preparation of 

 various fungicides and insecticides, together with directions for their application. 

 Several forms of spraying apparatus are figured and described. 



ENTOMOLOGY. 



The influence of environment on the life history of insects, J. 

 B. Smith (Gard. and Forest, 10(1897), No. 496, p. 334).— The author 

 points out that the old idea that when the life history of an insect is 

 once worked out work on that insect is done, is coming to be regarded 

 as erroneous, and that in the future it will be necessary to begin work 

 afresh on the life history of insects, working with especial reference to 

 the locality where the study is made. He notes the results obtained 

 by Professor Card, of Nebraska, and Professor Washburn, of Oregon, 

 and says: 



"Mr. Card places much stress, and rightly, on the fact that in Nebraska apples 

 blossom, set, and even (dose the calyx cup before the moths appear or the eggs are 

 laid. In New Jersej this is not so. It is almost impossible to find an unhatched 

 pupa in the orchard after the blossoms begin to drop. In our State there is nothing 

 but larva 1 to be found in the cocoons until the first spell of warm weather that starts 

 the sap in the trees and induces a swelling of the buds. Then, almost over night, 

 everything enters the pupal stage, and this is usually short, much less than the dura- 

 tion of blooming time in an apple orchard. But even in New Jersey differences 

 exist. Near New Brunswick there is positively a single annual brood only. South 

 of Burlington County there is at least a partial second brood, and the practice that 

 would prove perfectly satisfactory in one locality would be distinctly imperfect in 

 the other. The truth is that insects, like all other creatures, adapt themselves to 

 their surroundings, and that their habits and life histories are different in even 

 slightly different localities. I have never seen the egg of a codling moth on a leaf, 

 and I believe none has been previously recorded. Nevertheless, I du not for a 

 moment discredit Mr. Card's observation. 



"We have a similar set of experiences with insecticides. Insects which succumb 

 readily to kerosene in the Atlantic States defy it absolutely in Colorado, while we 

 are just as likely to find the food plant much more sensitive to it. Washes that 

 easily destroy the San Jose scale in California are ridiculously ineffective in the 

 Atlantic States. This very scale is changing its life history and habits in the East 

 materially in several directions. I will venture the prediction that in half a dozen 

 years it will not be. considered a first-class pest in New Jersey, though I would not 

 like to extend this prophecy to localities with which I am less familiar." 



The author is confident that when the subject is gone over from a 

 local standpoint the practice of economic entomology will be greatly 

 changed. 



Insects affecting domestic animals, H. Osbokn (If. 8. Dcpt. A</>:, 

 Division of Entomology Bui. 5, ti.ser., pp. 302, figs. 170). — This is a com- 

 prehensive monograph of the insect and arachnid parasites of domestic 





