defined centres earlier in the season, and that if taken in July (or about five weeks earlier 

 than they had been accustomed to), they can prevent their spreading to larger areas. 

 Now, too, they dilute the Paris green with flour and finely-sifted wood ashes, greatly re- 

 ducing the cost of the poison per acre. At the same time the acreage or area to which 

 poison is now applied has been reduced tenfold, at least. For example, here in the Red 

 River Valley, for 30 miles up and 50 miles down the river in July there were only two 

 plantations (together about 2,000 acres) upon which Aletia was found. In August this 

 brood would have spread over almost the entire section mentioned. Paris green was 

 applied to this limited infested area, and the larger areas saved from injury. The saving 

 is hardly to be estimated. The above appears to me to be one of the greatest triumphs 

 of economic entomology, and, I may truthfully sav, also of my most estimable chief, Dr. 

 C. V. Riley." 



With regard to another injurious insect, the following facts well illustrate what may 

 be done by following the advice of an experienced entomologist. 



During the year 1885 the Hon. Moses Fowler, a wealthy banker and landowner of 

 Lafayette, Indiana, applied to Prof. F. M. Webster, an agent of the United States 

 Department of Agriculture, then located at that place, for relief from very serious depre- 

 dations by an unknown enemy to his corn, which was damaging some of his fields from 

 5 to 75 per cent., he having this year 10,000 acres of land devoted to this crop. Upon 

 examination the depredator proved to be the well-known corn-root worm, the larva of 

 Diahrotica longicornis. Mr. Fowler estimated the loss in his fields by reason of this 

 insect at .$10,000, with a probability of still greater injury the following year. On the 

 advice of Mr, Webster, the next season he sowed 5,000 acres of the worst infested lands 

 to oats, and the following year the other 5,000 acres was treated in the same manner, the 

 first 5,000 acres being this year again devoted to corn. As a result of a continuation of 

 this rotation the pest has been practically exterminated, thereby, according to Mr. Fow- 

 ler's estimate, saving him $10,000 per annum. 



Professor Osborn has shown that grass insects destroy much j)roduce. He estimates 

 that the small leaf-hoppers {Jassidm) destroy as much food from two acres of pasture as 

 would feed one head of stock. From recent experiments he has found that it is possible 

 by the use of hopperdozers to reduce the numbers of these insects so materially that, 

 ■upon two plots, chosen for their similarity of the conditions of the growth, the amount 

 of hay produced upon a plot which was once treated with the hopperdozer was 34 per 

 cent, greater than upon the corresponding untreated plot. 



I have said that the study of economic entomology is many sided and requires many 

 workers. It is equally true that all who would keep up with the rapid development which 

 is going on all the time must work day and night, early and late. The various habits of 

 so many different objects of study, many of them nocturnal, require constant attention. 



In conclusion, I would urge on everyone the great importance of keeping the most 

 careful notes of everything which affects their work, not only of what is seen in one's own 

 investigations, but of whatever is found in the literature of the different subjects studied : 

 there is perhaps no detail of our work which so well repays the slight extra trouble 

 which it involves as making all notes carefully, completely and neatly, and then putting 

 them away systematically, so that they can be found when required suddenly on some 

 future occasion. Our " private notes," as we call them, should, I think, be made with 

 the greatest possible care, not only for our own sakes, but to insure that they may be. 

 of use to others alter we are gone. Who has not felt the disappointment on looking 

 through the collection of some great worker suddenly called away from this life, of find- 

 ing rare and interesting specimens, without a single note of locality, date, or other infor- 

 mation, and how comparatively useless such specimens, and even the labor by which 

 they were bred or procured, are thus rendered. We all know this, and yet how, too 

 often, do we put aside material without labels, thinking that we know and shall 

 remember all about them. After many years of much wasted labor I have come 

 to the conclusion that a few speciaiens well preserved, properly mounted, and with full 

 notes, are far more valuable than a large number of specimens without these characters. 



