348 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1940 



Even more strange is the method that was practiced rather ex- 

 tensively in one section of the East and that has also been reported 

 as being practiced in the West. This method consisted of placing 

 tin cans on poles about the field. The origin of this method is obscure, 

 but it apparently caught the popular fancy and for a few years bean 

 fields with poles topped by tin cans were a familiar sight in sec- 

 tions of Maryland and Virginia. One enterprising oil dealer cap- 

 italized the popularity of this method by offering a prize to the grower 

 whose bean field presented the best display of cans which had originally 

 contained his brand of oil. 



BIOLOGY AND CONTROL 



A Federal field laboratory was established in Birmingham, Ala., 

 in 1921, with Dr. N. F. Howard as its director, and in cooperation 

 with the State of Alabama an extensive investigation of the beetle 

 and its control was initiated. The investigations by the Federal 

 Government were continued on a large scale for about 10 years, dimin- 

 ishing in extent thereafter until the year 1938, when they were limited 

 to a study of the pest in the Norfolk, Va., area. The curtailment of 

 this work by the Federal Government was due primarily to the success 

 of control measures developed by Dr. Howard and his staff of workers, 

 namely, L. W. Brannon, H. C. Mason, B. J. Landis, Rodney Cecil, 

 J. H. Douglass, and others. 



As the beetle spread, State investigators devoted considerable time 

 to the problem, and the Federal laboratory at Birmingham, Ala., 

 was moved to Columbus, Ohio, in 1926, so as to be located nearer the 

 center of the infested areas. Field laboratories were also established 

 at Geneva, N. Y., in 1924 and at Norfolk, Va., in 1929. Scientists 

 were dispatched to Mexico in 1921-22 in search of parasites or other 

 natural enemies, and a laboratory was established in Mexico City in 

 1929 for the purpose of studying and breeding parasites for shipment 

 to the United States. 



These reasearches involved answers to such questions as (1) Could 

 the spread of the beetle be prevented? (2) If not, could the grower 

 economically control it with insecticides? (3) What would be the 

 effect of the introduction of parasites? (4) What crop is it capable 

 of destroying? (5) What would be the natural barriers to its spread 

 over the entire area east of the llocky Mountains ? 



BIOLOGY 



Food flants. — The uncertainty as to the range of food plants of 

 the bean beetle was a very disturbing factor when the insect was first 

 found in the East. It was known that this pest was very destructive 

 to the garden type of beans in the Southwest, but it was not estab- 



