VI 



having more than trebled in the past year and a half. The 

 need of more assistance is imperative. 



Dnring- the year the department has extended courtesies 

 in the way of the use of its cuts to various parties ; zinc etch- 

 ings have been loaned to Mr. Oestlund of the University at 

 Minneapolis, to Professor Pammel of Iowa; and permission 

 was granted Professor Kellogg of California to have made 

 from cuts in our possession a large number of electrotypes to 

 be used in his forthcoming work. The same privilege was 

 accorded Professor Blatchley of Indiana for his work on 

 Orthoptera. 



I have again to acknowledge courtesies received in behalf 

 of the year's work from diiTerent sources. The members of the 

 station stafif and employes of the institution generally are in 

 every respect obliging and courteous. The press, our best 

 means of disseminating information quickly, has always been 

 ready to serve in this work. While according to the general 

 press all due praise for efificient aid in disseminating informa- 

 tion, in fact, as has been stated, the press is one of our, best 

 means of getting facts before the people, the Entomologist 

 cannot condemn too emphatically the practice of the Asso- 

 ciated Press in sending out, notably from Washington, D. C, 

 the most lurid reports which are calculated either to raise our 

 constituents upon a pinnacle of hope from which they are 

 later destined to be dashed, or to fill them with constant 

 alarm. Eor instance, our citizens may learn, from what ap- 

 pears to be an authentic report, that Dr. Howard has dis- 

 covered a fungus that will kill all the Grasshoppers in the 

 country; and that another member of the stafif is breeding, 

 by countless millions, parasitic mites which will lay low the 

 festive mosquito and that these parasites will be sent out in 

 tubes to suffering humanity. Hardly have we stopped rejoic- 

 ing over this news, when we are plunged into the depths of 

 despair by startling statements spread broadcast over the 

 country, amongst farmers and others, that a new kissing bug 

 has been discovered ; that a new worm has been found which 

 contains in the bite of one individual enough ])()ison to kill 

 thirteen persons and so on, and so on. We do not believe 

 that this office is the onlv one which receives, as a result of 



