INSECTS IN RELATION TO MAN AO7 
Based upon the foundation laid by Riley, the work of the 
Division (now the Bureau) of Entomology has steadily pro- 
egressed, under the leadership of Dr. Leland O. Howard. With 
a comprehensive and firm grasp of his subject, alert to discover 
and develop new possibilities, energetic and resourceful in 
management, Dr. Howard has brought the government work 
in applied entomology to its present position of commanding 
importance. Admirably organized, the Bureau now maintains 
a corps of about fifty experts, and the total output of the Divi- 
sion and the Bureau now amounts to nearly one hundred bul- 
letins and more than half as many circulars. 
The Department of Agriculture has recently succeeded in 
the cul- 
starting a new and important industry in California 
ture of the Smyrna fig. The superior flavor of this variety 
is aue to the presence of ripe seeds, or, in other words, to 
fertilization, and for this it 1s necessary for pollen of the wild 
fig, or “caprifig,” to be transferred to the flowers of the 
Smyrna fig. Normally this pollination, or “ caprification,” 
is dependent upon the services of a minute chalcid, blastoph- 
aga grossorum, which develops in the gall-like flowers of 
the caprifig. The female insect, which in this exceptional in- 
stance 1s winged while the male is not, emerges from the gall 
covered with pollen, enters the young flowers of the Smyrna 
fig to oviposit, and incidentally pollenizes them. 
After many discouraging attempts, Blastophaga, imported 
from Algeria, has now been established in California, and the 
new industry is developing rapidly. 
Canada.—The development of economic entomology in 
Canada has been due largely to the efforts of Dr. James 
Fletcher, of the Dominion Experimental Farms, Ottawa, 
whose annual reports and other writings indicate ability of an 
exceptional order. His work has been furthered in every way 
by the “eminent director of the experimental farms system, 
Dr. William Saunders, himself a pioneer in economic ento- 
mology in Canada and the author of one of the most valuable 
treatises upon the subject that has ever been published in 
America.” 
