32 



classification occupN'inii;' but four sheets. This food number is given 

 on the accession card at the lower corner on the back of the distribu- 

 tion map and on the food catalogue card. If the specimen is placed 

 in the duplicate collection, for exchange or other disposal, it is marked 

 "D" after the accession number, but rarely does this occur. Thus 

 we can at once find any specimen, no matter in which collection or 

 under what food. For the agricultural college I believe the building 

 up of a good economic or biologic collection is of great importance. 

 We wish the students to know the insects of a given food plant, 

 which are much more readily studied when placed together. Also, 

 if it is desirable to give a lecture before a farmers' meeting on the 

 insects of some particular crop the cases are all ready to be carried 

 to the lecture hall with the insects affecting that j)lant. Our cases 

 are so constructed that strips can be quickly placed over the edges 

 of the blocks without interfering with the specimens, and as the 

 bent-necked bottles are wired to the blocks, the case, when ready, 

 can be turned upside down and handled with impunity. 



I might also briefly indicate one or two other card files in use. 

 Clippings from newspapers are kept on manila slips 5 by 8 or 8 by 10 

 folded to 5 by 8, the clippings running the long way of the pai)er and 

 leaving a space at the upper left-hand corner for writing the name of 

 the species. They are then arranged systematically the same as the 

 systematic file of notes, each species by itself, and chronologically 

 under each species. Reports of county observers — a system for 

 which we have modeled after that inaugurated by Doctor Felt in 

 New York — are made on paper 8 by 10, which is folded 5 by 8, and 

 are kej)t under printed guide cards by counties, alphabetically. Clip- 

 pings concerning pests in that county or crop reports of that county 

 are also kept here, together with a record of the corresj)ondent litera- 

 ture and stationery furnished him, etc. Negatives are kept in card 

 drawers with the rods removed, 3^^ by 4j in 3 b}^ 5 drawers, 4 by 5 in 

 drawers 4 by 6, and 5 by 7 in 5 by 8 drawers, as these drawers are 

 made for cards and can be bought more cheaply than they can be built 

 to order. Furthei-morc, they have a guide block which holds the nega- 

 tives upright and solid no matter how many in the drawer. Each 

 negative has a number in one corner and is kept in a folder on which 

 all the data desired concerning it are recorded, and the negatives are 

 given a serial number for each size. A print of each negative is kept 

 with the notes in the experiment or systematic file, and the number 

 of the negative and its size are given. 



There are several considerations whicli commend such a general use 

 of the card system to the entomologist. First, expansibility. Every 

 one has expei'ienced the inconvenience of having to keep notes on one 

 species in half a dozen different lolaces in the same book. The card 

 system is capable of indefinite expansion. A second consideration is 

 ease in filing i\nd reference, for which I know of no method equal to 



