77 



THE DIVISION OF KXTOMOLOfJV. 



Fkank X. Wai.i.ac k. 



'I'lic l»i\isinri of l':iil(>innluu\- df tlic I »cpiirliii("iil of Coiisorvatioii ciii-i-ics 

 Willi it all Ihc powers and .hitics of llic old ollicc of Stale KiitdiuoloL'isl and 

 ill addition lias new duties and broader powei-s tlian the State Kntonioloijist 

 had under the old laws. 'Hiese powers and duties .d' the hivision of Knto- 

 inolo^y cover such a wide lield of aeti\il.\ that an appropriation of four 

 or live times the amount now available would not be svifliciont to see the 

 work carried out as I would like to have it. 



There are many duties of this office which are specilieally re(|uired by our 

 laws and it is only after tliese are accomplislied, that we can turn to the 

 other phases of tlie work. The field of insect study and control is so broad 

 and the need so great, it is deplorable tliat more money is not available for 

 tliis work. 



Primarily, tlie State Entomologisfs Office was establislied for the inspec- 

 tion and regulation of nurseries in the state and this is still one of its prin- 

 cipal duties. The nursery agents and d(>alers are also licensed by our de- 

 partment and we now have a fairly good control over the nursery business. 

 AVe have been able to eliminate most of the crooked methods which were 

 practiced in the old days by some of the nurserymen and their agents. 



The apiary inspection is an important part of our duties and this work 

 has increased rapidly the past few years and most of the beekeepers of tlie 

 state are now appreciating what the inspectors really mean to the beekeei>- 

 ing industry of Indiana. There is now a spirit of cooperation among the 

 beekeepers, in the districts where the inspectors have worked during the 

 past two years, that is extremely gratifying. East summer I had four in- 

 spectors in the field <ind even then we could not cover as much teri'itory 

 as we had calls fr(»m. Yet. we visited ITTi; aiiiaiies and inspected 19.24;") 

 colonies. We were able to do this because we had a detinite plan of work 

 outlined last si)ring and followed it throughout the season. A comparison 

 of this years work with foriner years will give you some iilea of the benefit 

 of (un- system of work. Duriim the four years of Mr. I'.aldwin's regime. S44 

 apiaries were visited and iLMI-'iS cdlonies of bees insi)e(ted. This reecn-d 

 was taken from .Mr. I'.aldwin's i)ublislied reports and I am only quoting his 

 tiixures. It shows that this season we did .'iT' r more work than was for- 

 merly done in four years. 



When disease is found we require each beekeeper to report to the ollice 

 when liis treatment of the disease has been completed and in most in- 

 stances where we could get no report an inspector was sent out to see if our 

 instructions were followed. We had to biuni some hives on these rein- 

 si^ections as a few of the beekeepers still contend that they can keep 

 bees in any manner they see fit. Out of 1T7"J inspections this season 

 we have only 40 repoiis which li.ive not yet been checked up on the work 

 finished as we directed. 



J'.eekeepers tours were held in many counties and 147 demonstration 



