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THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE OF AMERICA. 



the largest flowers of all the Nymphoeas and unequalled 

 in richness of color, embracing many shades from pure 

 white to fiery crimson. These flowers are best in the 

 home grounds where they can be seen at close range and 

 when they can be used fresh if required for decoration. 

 They are also good shippers and will travel a long dis- 

 tance without damage and if cut at an early stage will 

 keep three or four days in excellent condition. 



I am indebted to Mr. E. T. Harvey, of Cincinnati, Ohio, 

 ■ for this beautiful picture of an amateur's water garden 

 reproduced herewith. Of course, this is not his first or 

 second year at water gardening; it represents many sea- 

 son's careful thought and study of the different types of 

 this large family here represented, and I believe it is all 

 his own construction, Japanese lantern bench, etc., but to 

 look at this picture closely, in the foreground is a beauti- 

 ful specimen of Victoria Drickeri. These are considered 

 very difficult to grow, but we are not yet familiar with 

 their requirements, and they are as easy to grow as any 

 water lily ; here again are the tender Nymphoes, day and 

 night bloomers, as well as the hardy. Here is also some 

 fine plants of Egyptian Lotus, reed grasses. Bamboo and 

 other marginal plants with a most beautiful setting of 

 evergreen, and other trees, bushes, etc., in the rear. An 

 ideal water garden that any lover of these plants can have 

 if he so desires. And where do our professional gar- 

 deners come in ? 



BUREAU OF ENTOMOLOGY. 



By L. O. Howard, Chief ok Bureau of Entomology, U. S. Dept. 

 OF Agriculture. 



The entomological service of the United States Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture was carried on down to the year 1878 

 by Townsend Glover, who published a report practically 

 every year in the annual report of the department, but 

 whose time was also largely occupied with the prepara- 

 tion and care of the general museum of the department 

 and in the preparation of models of fruits and so on. In 

 June, 1878, Professor C. V. Riley, who had made a great 

 reputation for himself as State Entomologist of Missouri, 

 was appointed entomologist of the department. He held 

 office until May, 1879, when he resigned, and Professor 

 J. H. Comstock, of Cornell University, was appointed 

 as his successor. With the incoming of the Garfield ad- 

 ministration in the Spring of 1881. Professor Riley was 

 restored to his former position and remained in office 

 until June, 1894, when he was succeeded by the present 

 chief of the service. 



The beginning of the important work in entomology 

 under the department dates from Professor Riley's first 

 appointment in 1878. The entomological service was 

 made a division of the department in 1884, and the di- 

 vision was made a bureau in 1904. When Professor Riley 

 first took up the work, he had two assistants and an an- 

 nual appropriation of five thousand dollars. At the pres- 

 ent time there are employed in the work of the bureau 

 more than five hundred persons and the appropriation for 

 the present fiscal year is $672,000. 



In the thirty-four years which have elapsed sinca Pro- 

 fessor Riley's first appointment, studies have been made 

 of all of the principal injurious insects of the United 

 States, and competent remedies of one kind or another 

 have been discovered. Many very serious problems, in- 

 volving loss to the country of many millions of dollars 

 annually, have been successfully solved, and the present 

 methods of fighting the principal crop pests of the coun- 

 try have for the most part been developed in the course 

 of the work of the bureau. Some of the most striking 

 of these results may be mentioned briefly. 



The early investigations of the cotton caterpillar of the 

 South resulted in the universal adoption of the Paris 

 green treatment which reduced this insect from the rank 

 of a first-class pest to that of one which can practically 

 be ignored except on the occasion of unusual immigra- 

 tion from South America such as occurred during the 

 Summer of 1911. 



Investigations of the hop plant-louse in Xew York in 

 1866 resulted in the discovery of important points in the 

 extraordinary life history of the insect which enabled 

 hop growers to handle it with ease. 



Investigations of the clover seed midge at an even ear- 

 lier date rendered this insect comparatively impotent 

 whereas it had threatened the destruction 'of the clover 

 seed crop. 



The introduction of the Australian ladybird at a later 

 date saved the citrus orchards of California from de- 

 struction by the white scale. 



The bureau was the first to study the San Jose scale ; 

 to elaborate a system of treatment which lias helped fruit- 

 growers to subdue this pest, and at the same time it in- 

 troduced a natural enemy from China, which, in the ab-- 

 sence of the other remedies, would have kept the scale 

 in check through at least the southern ^portion of its 

 range. 



The establishment of the Smyrna fig industry in Cali- 

 fornia is due to the acclimatization, under the direction 

 of the bureau's experts, of the fig-fertilizing insect sent 

 over from Algeria by an expert of the Bureau of Plant 

 Industry. 



The enormous damage threatened by the pear thrips 

 has been practically entirely avoided by discoveries of 

 the bureau. 



The present system, adopted so generally, of growing 

 good crops of cotton in spite of the presence of the very 

 destructive Mexican cotton boll weevil, is due to one of 

 the most complete and even exhaustive studies of an in- 

 sect ever made and which has been carried on by the 

 Bureau of Entomology since 1896. 



The bureaw has imported from foreign countries, and 

 has acclimatized in New England, a large number of 

 species of insects which parasitize or prey upon the gipsy 

 moth and brown-tail moth, and these imported insects 

 are already playing a large part in the reduction in num- 

 ber of these serious pests to orchards, shade trees and 

 forests. 



At the present time many important investigations are 

 being carried on. The recently imported alfalfa weevil 

 is being studied in some of the Western States, and 

 methods affording great relief have already been discov- 

 ered. There are now in different parts of the country 

 about thirty-five field laboratories, under the direction of 

 the bureau, which are engaged in investigating different 

 groups of the most important insects, and the work of 

 the bureau in bee culture has resulted in the discovery of 

 the cause of the most important bee diseases and in the 

 ascertaining of many facts which are of great service to 

 this important industry. Also the taireau shares in the 

 administration of the insecticide law and in that of the 

 plant quarantine inspection law. 



Important work has been done further by the bureau 

 in the study of insects which carry diseases of man, and 

 its investigations of mosquitoes, of the house fly, of the 

 Rocky Mountain fever tick, and of the Texas fever tick, 

 have formed bases for the important work which is now 

 being carried on against these diseases. 



National Association of Gardeners* 

 Meeting, Grand Central Palace, New 

 York City, Monday, April 7, 2 p. m. 



