18 REPOET OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 



fabrics manufactured from them, that any one at a glance might see the 

 particular grade of wool or cotton enteriug iuto the composition of the 

 fabric, and with the tobacco-samples the product in its prepared state. 



The valuable collection of fruit and vegetable models, to which large 

 additions were made, were renamed and mounted on blocks or stands, 

 that they could be better seen and examined. They were then trans- 

 ferred to Philadelphia, where the same plan of arrangement hitherto 

 existing in the museum was followed out, showing the fruit as grown in 

 various States, and illustrating their adaptability to given localities. 



The large and valuable series of etchings on copper, comprising up- 

 wards of three hundred plates, prepared by yourself in leisure hours 

 during the last twenty years, were transferred from the entomological 

 rooms of the Department to Philadelphia as a portion of the exhibit in 

 entomology, having been renamed up to the latest date from recent 

 check-lists or works of specialists. In this series is illustrated not only 

 the common and well-known forms of our noxious and benelicial insects, 

 but many of the rare and little-known species from the far West, in pub- 

 lic and private collections, in all many thousand species. Many of these 

 are ligured in all stages, from the egg to the perfect insect, with both 

 sexes, and, in the Lcpidoptcra^ with the upper and lower surfaces of the 

 wings. Manuscript notes on the species were placed near at hand for 

 those wishing to make references or desiring to learn more than the 

 simple name of a given insect. 



In the collection of economic entomology the usual plan of arrange- 

 ment (according to classification) was dispensed with, and a plan adopted 

 that was thought to be more purely agricultural and more in the interest 

 of the farmer or fruit-grower. This collection, filling twenty-four cases or 

 drawers, and numbering over 1,100 specimens, comprises the most com- 

 mon forms of injurious and beneficial insects in the United States. The 

 collection is by no means complete, but serves to illustrate the plan of 

 arrangement, which is especially adapted to cabinets of r.gricultural 

 colleges. State museums, and similar institutions. The cases measure 

 IG by 21 inches and 2i inches deep, outside measurement. They are 

 made of whitewood or poplar, ^ inch thick, dovetailed at the corners, 

 with the bottom rabbeted in. The sides are made of two pieces, forming 

 the box proper, about Ih inches high, and a cover 1 inch, which is grooved 

 on the inner surface near the top (about ^ inch) for the reception of a 

 plate of glass fastened in, when the box is made, with putty. The cover 

 and box, where they fit together, are tongued and grooved, and are held 

 together by brass hooks and eyes on either side. 



The plan of arrangement is to show in one group the insect foes of a 

 particular food -plant in. the four stages of agg, larva, pupa, and insect, 

 accompanied by specimens exhibiting the mode of injnry, and classi- 

 fied according to the portion of the plant injured, as root, stalk, foliage, 

 or fruit, to be followed by the beneficial insects known to destroy a par- 

 ticular species ; in short, the idea of such a collection is to be able to 

 show at a glance the entire history of any insect or group of insects 

 affecting any of our food-crops. 



In visiting such a collection, we will suppose the farmer, or fruit- 

 grower, or student should desire to see the Colorado potato-beetle. The 

 case devoted to the potato is opened, and he sees a dried specimen of 

 potato-leaf, fastened upon a card-label, covered with little patches of the 

 yellow, golden eggs of this insect; next he observes the larva?, of various 

 sizes, either in alcohol or prepared by "blowing;" then the pupa is 

 shown to him ; and, to complete the story, the male and female of the 

 perfect insect are displayed, some in a state of rest, some with wings 

 expanded, and others in various positions, to show marked portions of 



