August, '09] JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY 269 



reference work. The bulletins should be made as attractive as pos- 

 sible. This is not always within the control of the entomologist and 

 many of the other points to be mentioned cannot always be determined 

 by him, but if he be a man who is interested to present his Work in, 

 the best form, he can usually have considerable influence over the 

 form and make-up of his publication. The title page of many of our 

 Station publications at once consigns them to the waste basket. The 

 type is poorly selected and their general appearance is forbidding. 

 One often has to study the title page before he can ascertain the 

 subject of the bulletin. The subject should stand out distinctly and 

 should be attractively stated. A small illustration characteristic of 

 the subject matter adds much to the appearance. 



There are a few constantly occurring classes of bulletins which 

 merit brief comment. The bulletin which includes a discussion of a 

 number of totally unrelated insects may be useful for reference, but 

 in most cases the account of the various insects would be much 

 stronger if put into separate short bulletins dealing with that pest 

 only. This of course does not apply to bulletins dealing with the 

 insects affecting . some particular crop. Second, the bulletin which 

 deals with the Insects of the Year. It is doubtful whether such bulle- 

 tins are very generally read by the agricultural public. They are 

 of interest and of great value to the entomologist and find a very 

 proper place in a report or a paper before the Association of Eco- 

 momic Entomologists. Usually they merely serve to show what the 

 entomologist has been doing during the year and are more or less 

 padded in order to make some report of the entomological work during 

 that season. The bulletin which deals exhaustively with some pest, 

 going so far as to include its anatomy, embryology and other techni- 

 cal details, is probably never read by the average farmer and this 

 wealth of technical detail merely serves to confuse him and makes 

 it difficult for him to separate the wheat from the chaff as far as use 

 is concerned. There are some other matters commonly included in 

 Station bulletins which it seems to the writer might well be omitted 

 and placed in annual reports or in technical publications. For in- 

 stance, lengthy bibliographies or a list of insects is of no service what- 

 ever to the average agriculturist tho exceedingly valuable to the ento- 

 mologist. One should always have in mind that these bulletins are 

 published in large editions and that it is much better to consign such 

 technical matter to publications printed in small editions and circu- 

 lated among those whom they will benefit. These suggestions do not 

 of course apply to bulletins which are published as those of the New 

 York State Experiment Station, which are circulated among a com-r 



