[BETHUNE] RECENT WORK IN ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY 11 
Moth, recommended that the Legislature should leave the work to the in- 
fested towns and cities, making an appropriation of $40,000, from which 
should be paid to each town and city a sum equal to the amount which 
they themselves raised for the work, the whole not to exceed $40,000. 
This report seemed to be unsatisfactory to the Legislature, and the 
“ Ways and Means Committee” of the House have decided to recom- 
mend to the Legislature not to adopt the report of the investigating 
committee, but have reported a bill for $100,000 for the remainder of 
this year, to be spent under the direction of the Governor and Council. 
This bill is now before the House (May 19th, 1900). | 
In the two instances that I have given economic entomology is em- 
ployed here and in Massachusetts in a contest with destructive insects, 
against which efforts for their extermination are being made on a large 
scale. It is pleasant to turn from these cases to others of a directly 
beneficient character. For a number of years efforts have been made 
in the State of California to improve the quality of the figs which are 
grown there and to produce a fruit that would bear some comparison 
with the Smyrna fig of commerce which comes from Asia Minor. These 
attempts invariably resulted in failure, even though fig trees were im- 
ported from the East. At length it became known that the superiority 
of the Smyrna fig was due to the flavour imparted by the abundance of 
ripe seeds that it contains and that the production of these seeds was 
brought about by a minute insect (Blastophaga grossorum) which fer- 
tilized the blossoms. Efforts were made by private individuals to intro- 
duce this insect which inhabits the flowers of the wild or capri fig, into 
California, but without success. At length the work was taken up by 
Dr. L. O. Howard, the United States Entomologist at Washington, who 
endeavoured with the utmost perseverance to import the tiny insect and 
get it to become naturalized in America. Undaunted by failures, he 
continued his efforts and last June was rewarded by complete success. 
I have reffained from relating any of the very interesting details in 
connection with this triumph of economic entomology as Dr. Howard is 
to be with us at this meeting and will, he informs me, describe in his 
lecture on Thursday evening the manner in which his operations were 
carried on, the difficulties that he had to surmount and the wonderful 
success that he has achieved. 
For the same reason I shall content myself with the mere mention 
of the experiments that are being made in Africa and Italy as well as 
in North America to ascertain how far mosquitoes are responsible for 
conveying the germs of malaria to suffering humanity. Dr. Howard was 
the originator of the method of preventing the production of mosquitoes 
by covering the stagnant waters in which they breed with a film of kero- 
