INTRODUCTION. 
The reports of the six permanent field agents of the Division are in- 
cluded in this bulletin. They are printed this year in full, but it should 
be understood that they are little more than summaries of the work in 
general performed by each one. Special reports upon specific subjects 
have from time to time been sent in by special direction, and these 
have been published in INSECT LIFE. 
Mr. Lawrence Bruner, who last year reported upon the insects inju- 
rious to young trees on tree claims, has the present season devoted 
much of his attention to insects affecting, or liable to affect, the Sugar 
beet, a crop of growing importance in the State in which he is located. 
Although but one season’s collecting has been done, some 64 species 
have been observed to prey upon this crop. As has been shown, nearly 
all of these can be readily kept in subjection by the use of the kero- 
sene emulsion or the arsenites. 
Mr. D. W. Coquillett’s report is mainly devoted to methods and ap- 
paratus for the destruction of scale insects by means of fumigation. 
The experiments were aimed at the Red Scale, which is one of the most 
difficult to treat with washes. He describes the simplified tents, the 
rigging which enables them to be used rapidly, and shows theadvantage - 
of excluding the actinic rays of the light. Judging from recent Cali- 
fornia newspapers the use of this method of fighting scale-insects is 
rapidly increasing and the comparatively expensive apparatus is al- 
ready owned by a large number of fruit-growers. This improved 
method is the legitimate outgrowth of experiments which we instituted 
at Los Angeles in 1887, and possesses the advantage over spraying that 
itcan hardly be-done in a slovenly manner. If used at all its effects 
are nearly complete. 
Mr. Albert Koebele, while reporting upon a number of interesting 
fruit pests, notably the Tent Caterpillars of the Pacific slope, and a 
Noctuid larva which destroys the buds of certain fruit trees, devotes 
most of his report to the description of certain tests, which I directed 
him to make with different resin compounds against the Grape Phyllox- 
era in the Sonoma Valley during September and October of the past 
year. The results have been fully as satisfactory as we anticipated, and 
the economy of the process is very striking, labor being practically the 
only expense. 
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