February, '12] CURRENT NOTES 95 



1st, and on the 4th sailed for Italy, where he will join Mr. W. F. Fiske and Mr. H. S. 

 Smith, who are investigating the gypsy moth parasites in Europe, and also making 

 an investigation and collection of the parasites of the alfalfa weevil. Mr. Worthley 

 will make observations on the gypsy moth and study field conditions in Europe. 



The Porto Rico Board of Agriculture has been organized with W. V. Tower, for- 

 merly of the Porto Rico Agricultural Experiment Station as entomologist, and C. E. 

 Hood of the Bureau of Entomology as assistant. Mr. Tower will enforce quarantine 

 regulations against importations,' and the construction of three fumigating houses 

 has been authorized. Mr. Hood will attempt to introduce the natural enemies of 

 the white grub into Porto Rico. 



Congressman .J. Hampton Moore has introduced in the House of Representatives 

 a bill (H. R. 14210) appropriating $80,000 for work against the chestnut blight 

 disease. This appropriation is to be placed in the hands of the Secretary of Agri- 

 cultiu-e, who is expected to work in co-operation with various state authorities, and 

 $10,000 is to be expended in studying the relations of insects to the spread of the 

 disease. A similar bill has been introduced in the Senate by Senator Penrose. 



At the twenty-second annual Meeting of the Western Association of Nurserymen, 

 held at Kansas City, December, 13th and 14th, 1911, papers were read by Prof. S. J. 

 Hunter, on "Interstate Co-operation" and by Dr. T. J. Headlee, on the "Relation 

 of the Agriciiltural College to NurserjTnen." 



Professor A. J. Cook, who has recently been appointed horticultural commis- 

 sioner of CaUfornia, has announced his program of operations, wliich includes a 

 campaign to free the nurseries of the state of all pests. Professor H. S. Fawcett of 

 Florida has been engaged to take charge of work for the suppression of fungous fruit 

 diseases, and Professor H. A. Weinland will be sent to Honolulu to attempt the 

 eradication of the Mediterranean fruit fly, which it is feared may be brought to 

 California from the Hawaiian Islands. 



Mr. T. C. Barber, who has been in charge of the laboratory for the investigation 

 of sugar cane insects of the Bureau of Entomology at New Orleans, resigned on Jan- 

 uary 1st to accept the position of Director of Branch Stations of the Sugar Planters' 

 Experiment Station at Tucuman, Argentina. He has been succeeded by Mr. T. E. 

 Hollo wa J' of the Bureau. 



Mr. E. S. Tucker, of the Bureau of Entomology, who has been located at Dallas, 

 Texas, resigned on January 1st to accept the position of Assistant Entomologist in 

 the Louisiana Experiment Station at Baton Rouge. 



Mr. A. H. Jennings, formerly of the Sanitary Department of the Isthmian Canal 

 Commission, who came into the service of the Bureau of Entomology on August 1, 

 1911, will be located in South Carolina during the coming season and engaged in an 

 investigation of the possible transmission of pellagra by insects. Mr. W. V. King 

 will be associated with Mr. Jennings in this work. 



Messrs. Andrew Rutherford and E. H. Strickland, Carnegie Scholars, of England, 

 who have conducted studies at the Bussey Institution and at Cornell University 

 respectively for some months, left New York early in January to attend an agri- 

 cultural conference in Trinidad, West Indies. They will return to the United 

 States in a short time. After a brief inspection of the work against citrus insects 

 in Florida, they will proceed to Dallas, Texas, where they will be associated with 

 the section of Southern Field Crop Insect Investigations throughout the season. 



