568 JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY [Vol. 10 



and Dr. A. L. Quaintance. It was found that the beetle had established itself over 

 an area of some 500 or 600 acres, being quite abundant in certain parts of this area. 

 Thorough-going life history work is under way under the immediate direction of 

 Mr. William O. Ellis, in cooperation with the New Jersey Agricultural Experiment 

 Station. Special effort will be made to confine the insect to its present area of 

 distribution and eradication measures will be undertaken if further study of the 

 insect indicates such action as at all likely to be effective. 



On October 4, a conference of southern entomologists was held at New Orleans to 

 discuss the pink bollworm situation. It was attended by W. E. Hinds, Alabama; 

 Franklin Sherman, Jr., North Carolina; E. L. Worsham, Georgia; Wilmon Newell, 

 Florida; E. E. SchoU and E. L. Ayers of the Texas Department of Agriculture; Prof. 

 S. W. Bilsing of the Texas A. and M. College; W. R. Dodson, director of the Louis- 

 iana Experiment Station; B. R. Coad, Tallulah, La.; T. E. HoUoway and W. D. 

 Hunter of the Bureau of Entomology. After a full discussion a resolution was passed 

 to the effect that unless further infestation is found at some point in Texas it is unnec- 

 essary for any of the southern states to modify their present quarantine regulations 

 or promulgate new ones. 



Mr. F. C. Craighead, Bureau of Entomology, spent the first two weeks of Septem- 

 ber in the vicinity of Kansas City, Mo., and Colorado Springs, Col. In the former 

 locaUty he investigated the cause of the dying oaks. A large percentage of the oaks 

 in that locality (reported generally also through the state) is dying slowly from year 

 to year. The insect associated with these dying trees, and no doubt responsible for 

 the death in a large measure, is the two-lined chestnut borer {Agrilus bilineatus). 

 The beetles attack the top, killing this in one or two seasons and frequently kill the 

 entire tree. At Colorado Springs, Mr. Craighead studied the work carried on at 

 the station for the past two years in the control of poplar borers {Saperda calcarata 

 and Xylotrechus obliteratus). At higher elevations entire stands of poplars have 

 been destroyed by these insects. 



Mr. R. S. Woglum, Bureau of Entomology, reports that on September 17 a man 

 was killed at Upland, Cal., by liquid hydrocyanic acid while making preparations 

 to fumigate citrus trees. The accident was due either to some defect in the apparatus 

 or possibly to carelessness. This seems to be the first fatality which has occurred in 

 some thirty years of orchard fumigation in California. Anhydrous liquid hydro- 

 cyanic acid for fumigation purposes was apparently first employed by Charles W. 

 Mally in South Africa in 1915 and was subsequently investigated by private concerns 

 in Southern California. As the result of these investigations, considerable interest 

 has been awakened among California growers and fumigators, and at the present 

 time a number of outfits are using this method of fumigation. Just what effect the 

 unfortunate fatality referred to above will have on this method of fumigation in 

 California is problematical. It may result in the return to the pot or machine method 

 of generation. While it may be that the use of liquid hydrocyanic acid has advan- 

 tages over the method of fumigation standardized by Mr. Woglum, it must be remem- 

 bered that its practical value can only be established by a thorough investigation by 

 those familiar with the subject, and commercial work should not be undertaken by 

 those unacquainted with the poisonous nature of liquid hydrocyanic acid which vol- 

 atiUzes with great rapidity. A thorough investigation of this subject by Mr. Harry 

 D. Young, who is a chemist as well as a practical fumigator, is now in progress under 

 the direction of Mr. Woglum. 



Mailed December 15, 1917 



