564 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



scales of Lepuloptera, deatli web of young trout, Pollinia costcc in Cal- 

 ifornia, the leaf-footed bug attacking i)lunis, is Icerya an Australian 

 genus! the cotton wood-leaf beetle in New York, resin wash against 

 the grape aspidiotus, a scale insect on laurel oak, root webworm in 

 Pennsylvania, and the horn lly attacking horses. 



Descriptions of some new North American Homopterous 

 insects, E. P. van Duzee {Buffalo Soc. Wat. i^ci. BuL, vol. V, No. 4, 

 pp. 2O0-31O.) — Descriptions and habitat of the following 17 new spe- 

 cies: Idiocerus nervatus, Platymetoplus loricatus, F. fuscifrons, Allygus 

 co.stomaculatus, Deltocephalus fuscinervosiis, B. concentricus, Athysanus 

 [fammaroides, Eutettix southwicM, E. slossoni, iScaphoideus lufeolus, kS. 

 lohatus, T/iamnotettix perpunctata, T. aureola, Tinohrefpnus vittatus, Xes- 

 tocephahis puUcarius, X. fulvocapitatiiSj and X. tessellatus. Tinobregmus 

 and Xestocephalus are described as new genera. 



Effect of carbon bisulphid on the yield of crops, A. Girard 

 [Soc. Nat. Agr. [France]; ahs. in Jour. [British] Bd. Agr., 1 {1894), No. 

 l,pp. 73-75). — In view of the increasing use of bisulphid of carbon for 

 the destruction of subterranean insects, as root lice, root maggots, 

 white grubs, ants in their nests, etc., a knowledge of the effects of 

 this substance on soils and vegetation becomes important. That it will 

 destroy plant life when used excessively is abundantly proven with the 

 phylloxera of the grape in Europe. In the first experiment with this 

 substance vines were frequently killed by overdosing, and the traite- 

 ment d^extinction, as employed in Switzerland and some other European 

 countries outside of France, consists in using it in such quantities that 

 the infested vines and lice are destroyed at the same time. L. O, 

 Howard states that in an experience of his in destroying an ant nest 

 the grass immediately surrounding was killed. With these facts in 

 mind it is interesting to note that this substance seems to have a 

 strikingly beneficial effect on the soil in greatly increasing its fertility. 

 This seems to be conclusively shown in an elaborate series of experi- 

 ments conducted by the author and extending over a number of years. 

 Attention was first called to this action by the results following an 

 attempt to destroy amematode {Heterodcra schachtii) upon the roots of 

 the sugar beet. To kill the parasite, protected as it was in the sub- 

 stance of the beet, it was necessary to use the bisulphid at the rate of 

 9 J oz. to the square yard, or 2,904 lbs. to the acre, which resulted also 

 in the complete sacrifice of the beet crop. Wheat grown on the same 

 field the year following, however, exhibited a remarkable superiority 

 throughout the tract treated with the insecticide, and this led in the 

 following years to a series of trials at the same rate per square yard, 

 with the following results : 



" Comparing the sulplinreted plats with the check phits, it appears that on the 

 former areas there was an increased yield of wheat, ranging from 15 to 46 per cent in 

 tlie grain and from 21 to 80 per cent in the straw. Potatoes on the sulplinreted 

 plats gave an increased yield of from 5 to 38 per cent, and the production of heet 



