NOTES. 623 



C. S. Plumb, of Ohio, sent a paper on Prolificacy of Sheep Breeding, s. M. Tracy, 

 now connected with tin- Bureau of Plant Industry of this Department, spoke upon 

 cassava growing in the Gulf States; and L. H. Pammel, of Iowa, described Some 

 Fungus Diseases in Iowa in 1904. 



The officers elected I'm- the ensuing year were Dr. II. I*. Arnishy, of Pennsylvania, 

 president; and Prof. F. W. Kane, of New Hampshire, secretary and treasurer. 



Association of Economic Entomologists. — The seventeenth annual meeting of the 

 Association of Economic Entomologists was held at Philadelphia December 29 and 

 .'!<>, 1904. The session w;is opened with an address hy the president, Prof. A. L. 

 Quaintance, of the Bureau of Entomology of this Department, entitled Some Present 

 Day Features of Applied Entomology in America. 



The speaker traced the development of interest in economic entomology, alluding 

 to the discovery of the connection between mosquitoes and the dissemination of 

 mal iria and yellow fever, the invasion of this country by the San Jose scale and the 

 boll weevil, and other economic insects. These things have aroused much interest 

 in applied entomology, and have resulted in an attempt to popularize it and give it 

 an important place in nature study. There are now in this country about 145 men 

 devoting more or less of their time to economic entomology, and if those engaged in 

 nursery inspection are included the number is easily doubled. 



Entomological investigations are being conducted in 43 of the experiment stations. 

 and there are now 59 workers in this field in the Bureau of Entomology. These men 

 have an aggregate appropriation of $280,000 annually, aside from special appropria- 

 tions for such pests as the boll weevil, gypsy moth, etc. The investigations in eco- 

 nomic entomology were credited with having saved $20,000,000 to growers of orchard 

 fruits alone, and to the country at large of about S155,000,000. 



The wide range of the investigations of economic entomologists was illustrated by 

 the importation of the fig insects, giving to California a most valuable fruit industry, 

 and the study of malaria, mosquitoes, aquatic insects, etc., besides investigations of 

 many forms depredating agricultural crops. General legislation has been directed 

 mainly against the San Jose scale, and latterly special laws have been enacted for the 

 purpose of checking the boll weevil, and Texas now proposes to enforce some radical 

 measures for the control of this pest. 



In a paper by E. P. Felt, of Albany, on Experiments with Lime-Sulphur Washes, 

 he stated that the results were uniformly successful, ami gave a formula and method i <i 

 preparation of a new sal soda-lime-sulphur wash he has recently devised. In dis- 

 cussion, .1. B. Smith stated that lime-sulphur washes had been very ineffectiveon apple 

 and pear trees in New Jersey, whereas upon the peach results were more satisfactory. 

 The same was reported for portions of eastern Pennsylvania. M. T. Cook,, of the 

 Cuba Experiment Station, described some Cuban insects, mentioning in particular a 

 leaf cutter ant which is a serious problem, since it sometimes defoliates small trees in 

 a single night. As a means of control he suggested scattering Paris green about the 

 entrance to the nests, a measure which promises to be of considerable service. In 

 a paper entitled Further Observations Concerning the Cotton Poll-Weevil, E. D. 

 Sanderson pointed out a benefit of the cottonworm in that its depredations result in 

 reducing the amount of food available for weevils. 



S. A. Forbes presented a paper on Spraying Apples against the Plum Curculio, and 

 brought forward data to show that 4 sprayings give the maximum benefit. The cost 

 of treating 492 trees was from 4 to ."> cts. each, or Pi to 17 cts. for the four treatments, 

 only 2 cts. of which could he charged to material. Asa result, the yield of fruit 

 was increased by about one-halt and its size by one-fifth, and its value was doubled 

 or trebled. C. L. Marlatt presented a brief paper upon the value of copper sulphate 

 for the destruction of mosquito larvae, showing that one part to a million in pure 

 water killed larva? about one-third grown in from 2 to 3 days; copper foil was also 

 destructive. The full-grown wigglers, however, required fully 1 part to 40,000, and 



