REPORT OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST 1908 ET 
through the mails or by express. This latter has undoubtedly had 
some effect upon the correspondence. 1470 letters, 171 postals, 42 
circulars, 408 packages were sent through the mails and 39 pack- 
ages were shipped by express. 
Nursery certificates. We have continued, as in past years, to 
indorse upon the request of the State Commissioner of Agriculture 
nursery certificates issued by his office and destined for points in 
the state of Virginia, since the Virginia authorities insist that ail 
certificates accompanying shipments of nursery stock to that state 
shall be indorsed by an official entomologist. The following is a 
list of firms to whom these nursery certificates were issued dur- 
ing 1908: 
Stark Bros. Nursery Co., George A. Sweet, Bryant Bros., all of 
Dansville; George S. Josselyn, T. S. Hubbard Co., F. E. Schiff- 
erli, Lewis Roesch, Foster & Griffith, all of Fredonia; The Chase 
Nurseries: Henry Sears é& Co.,, They MM. HH. Harmon Co., H. E. 
Merrell, all of Geneva; E. Moody & Sons, Lockport; Jackson Per- 
kins, Newark; Allen Nursery Co., Brown Bros. Co., Herrick Seed 
Co., Perry Nursery Co., First National Nurseries, Chase Bros. Co., 
Ellwanger & Barry, Western N. Y. Nursery Co., Rochester Nurs- 
ery Co., H. S. Taylor Nursery Co., Glen Bros., all of Rochester ; 
F. R. Pierson Co.,- Tarrytown. 
General. We would acknowledge at this time our indebtedness 
to Dr L. O. Howard, Chief of the Bureau of Entomology, United 
States Department of Agriculture, and his associates for identify- 
ing a number of insects. Several correspondents have rendered 
valuable services in securing desirable material for the collection. 
There has been, as in previous years, a most helpful cooperation on 
the part of all interested in the work of this office. 
The tacit limitations of earlier years confined the studies of the 
economic entomologist to insect enemies of well recognized farm 
crops, such as corn? potatoes, fruit, or to those forms annoying or 
injurious to domestic animals. The later extensive insect depre- 
dations upon shade and forest trees have served to emphasize the 
practical importance of this field. The more recent discoveries 
that malaria and yellow fever are transmitted by mosquitos, and 
that typhoid fever and other grave intestinal diseases may be con- 
veyed by house flies, has made the entomologist a most welcome 
ally of the sanitarian. Furthermore, careful investigations of in- 
jurious and dangerous insects have repeatedly demonstrated the 
value of such studies as a necessary preliminary to practical con- 
