340 Forty-fourth Report of the State Museum 



As the result of the operations above narrated, the insect has been 

 virtually destroyed throughout the infested districts. Comparatively 

 fevr eggs were laid last year, and there is no apprehension of serious 

 injury from the few survivors the coming season. 



When you recall the fearful losses from this Rocky Mountain locust 

 in some of the western states in former years that brought poverty 

 and starvation to thousands of their people — estimated at "two hundred 

 millions of dollars in a single year (1874), in the four States of 

 Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, and Iowa, you can not but regard it as a 

 triumph for economic entomology, that this great scourge, almost 

 equaling in destructiveness, in years of its abundance the migratory 

 locust of the old world, has been brought under control. 



The Entomological Division of the U. S. Department of Agriculture. 



I have on many former occasions felt it my duty and privilege to 

 mention and commend the work being done by the Entomological 

 Division of the Department of Agriculture at Washington, It well 

 deserves the liberal support extended to it by our General Govern- 

 ment, and the appreciation and encouragement which it is receiving 

 from the present Secretary and Assistant Secretary of the Depart- 

 ment. Its studies are thorough and of great practical value. Its 

 publications are characterized by a merit that makes them eagerly 

 sought for by entomologists throughout the world. Its collections — 

 remarkably rich in biological material — its manuscript and other 

 unworked matter relating to insect lives and habits, surj)rised me 

 with their amount and richness when a short time ago I was able to 

 look over a small portion of the accumulated store. 



The Division has recently achieved a signal triumph, to which there 

 is but time merely to refer, interesting as the recital of its story at 

 some length would be. 



Introduction of Parasitic Insects. 

 In 1868, a scale-insect, leery a Purchasi, or, as it is popularly known 

 from its peculiar appearance, " the cottony-cushion scale," chanced to 

 be brought into California, on an Acacia from Australia. It multi- 

 plied, spread rapidly, attacked almost every kind of vegetation, but 

 was especially destructive to orange trees. Its increase could not be 

 prevented by any means resorted to, although aided by all the scien- 

 tific skill that could be commanded. The orange trees were killed; 

 entire orchards were taken up and devoted to other uses. The 

 orange culture — so important an industry of the state — was 

 apparently doomed. 



