332 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



The number received from correspondents, accompanied usually with 

 inquiries of their name or means of control, was about 350, from 52 

 individuals. 



The correspondence of the office has not varied materially from that 

 reported in preceding years. The record of letters sent is 1235. Of all 

 those to which reference might be desirable hereafter, copies have been 

 retained, and placed on file. The letters received, indorsed, and filed, 

 during the year are 910 in number. 



The year has not been marked by any wide-spread insects ravages in 

 the state of New York, or by the introduction of any formidable insect 

 pest from abroad. The army-worm, in accordance with its accustomed 

 limitation of serious injury to a single year, did not again make its 

 appearance in formidable number. The San Jose scale is not spreading 

 rapidly over the portions of the state liable to its introduction. New 

 localities for it not hitherto reported, are Niagara, Ontario county j 

 Farmer, Seneca county ; and Poughkeepsie, on the Hudson river. 

 Apparently, conditions have not been favorable for its spread, and it 

 is very encouraging to state that in the examinations of 35 western 

 nurseries by my assistant, Dr E. P. Felt, in not a single instance was the 

 pest discovered. In none of the localities in the state where it has been 

 detected, with the exception of Long Island, has the scale spread to any 

 serious extent, and in most of them it is believed to have been exter- 

 minated. In view of the grave apprehensions that had been entertained 

 of the destructiveness and stubborn character of this pest, it is very 

 gratifying to have received the recent announcement by Dr J. B. Smith, 

 entomologist of the New Jersey agricultural experiment station, that it 

 can be exterminated by spraying the infested trees with pure kerosene 

 during the winter after Jan. i and again in July, and in the following 

 summer should it prove necessary. 



The early spring months indicated an unusual prevalence of aphides 

 upon crops and fruit trees, but later conditions prevented any very 

 serious injuries from them. 



