REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGIST 209 



thus supply a constant demand, which will continue whether sillc cult- 

 ure spreads and becomes profitable or not. The business side of the 

 problem would then find normal development. Finally, the experience 

 of the past two years confirms the views expressed as to the dit^.culty 

 of permanently establishing silk culture so long as our tariff laws are 

 uiiniu.st it. Any stimulus given to it must needs be temporary, and 

 the substantial way of encouraging the industry is by im})osing an irn 

 port duty on the reeled silk from foreign countries. This is essentially 

 tiic viow which I expressed a year ago in the foUoAviug words : 



" For fifteen years, now, I have carefully watched all that has been 

 done, and have, in my feeble way, aided to promote the industry, and 

 have seen one effort after another to establish it on anything like an 

 extensive scale fail, and always for the reason that capital and ordinary 

 labor can find more profitable employment. In studying the status of 

 the industry in South France the past summer, I was also suriDrised 

 to find it languishing and, as Professor Maillot, who has charge of the 

 sericultural station at Montpellier, assured me, for the same reason 

 that it had hitherto failed with us, viz., inability to compete with the silk 

 produced by the chea]ier labor of other countries, and especially of 

 China and Japan. If the French silk-grower cannot well cope with this 

 competition with the price of ordinary labor at 3 francs for men and 1^ 

 francs for women, how can we expect to ? The chief hope, in addition 

 to the advantages we possess, as set forth in the preface to the second 

 edition of my manual, is in the Serrell reeling machine, which, if it fulfil 

 its present promises, will revolutionize the silk industry and greatly 

 subordinate the question of labor. It is in this direction, then, that 

 there is hope, and fuller consideration of it will be found in the report." 



In how far the Serrell machine may be looked to for overcoming our 

 difficulties on the present basis of importation of the reeled silk will be 

 found set forth in the present report. 



During the year destructive locusts have attracted an unusual share 

 of attention, and I have devoted some time to their consideration. The 

 injury iu California has been due to a species {Melanojihis devastator) 

 hitherto not known to be particularly injurious, and one closely allied 

 to our Eocky Mountain species {Mclanoj>li(S sjyretns). Both of these will 

 be found treated of in the following pages, as also the non-migratory 

 species which have been extensively abundant during the year. The 

 subject was sufficiently important to justify special investigation, and 

 Messrs. D. W. Coquillett, Lawrence Bruuer, and Albert Koebele were 

 each engaged to make such investigations whether in California or in 

 the Northwestern States. Their reports are included. 



Among the other events that have been prominent during the year in 

 api)lied entomology are the ravages to onions of the Dark-sided Cut- 

 worm [Agrotis mcssoria) around Goshen, N. Y. ; the injury to leather 

 and boots and shoes by the "Leather-beetle" {Dermcstesvuljyinus); the 

 ■>\ idespread injury to most garden vegetables and to corn and cotton by 

 he Garden Web-worm {Eurycreon rantalis); the local injury to straw- 

 '•t'rries on Long Island by the Strawberry Weevil {Anthonomus mv.scu- 

 .''/y)»^'idatMeriden, Conn., of the Pear Midge {Biplosis nigra). Thislast- 

 ^..iuied species furnishes a good illustration of an insect e^'idently re- 

 cently introduced and yet confined to a very restricted area. In view of 

 the vast loss which such introduced insects have occasioned in the last 

 twenty-five years in different parts of the country, and the way in which 

 they have spread from their points of introduction, it is greatly to be 

 regretted that the Department has not some means of stamping out such 

 a localized introduced pest, and of thus preventing its spread over the 

 U AG— '85 



