74 



Concerning- pyretlirum, I have seen practically nothing new contrib- 

 uted during- the year. Of the insecticides less commonly used, Fletcher 

 has found white hellebore sufficient for the destruction of the cabbage 

 mag-got; Washburn has protected radishes ngainst tlie flea -beetle with 

 a strong tobacco water; Coquillett has experimented further and with 

 good success with lime, salt, and sulphur for the scale insects; both he 

 and Miss Murtfeldt have tried the new thymo-cresol, with especially 

 encouraging results thus far, for scale insects and plant-lice only; and 

 Garman has found the Bordeaux mixtvire to have insecticide properties 

 hitherto unsuspected. Of other miscellaneous insecticide experiments 

 I can recall only those of Osboru, some showing- the precise value of 

 the kerosene pan for the grass insects, and others, still more important, 

 by which as many as 376,000 grass insects -per acre (mostly leaf-hop- 

 pers and young grasshoppers) -were taken by simjily dragging over the 

 grass a sheet of iron coated with coal tar on the upper surface. 



Concerning that great department of economic -work in entomology, 

 which consists of the invention and trial of variations of agricultural 

 and horticultui'al practice with a view to the control of insect injuries, 

 I regret to say that I have little to report. The most important experi- 

 ments published during the year are those carried on by Comstock, of 

 New York, in the course of his studies on the wireworms. The often 

 recommended and almost standard remedy, a clean fallow, for these in- 

 sects was absolutely without effect. Just as many wire worms remained 

 alive after a year in his breeding- cage where no vegetation had been 

 allowed to grow, as in his check cage, where grass had been kept grow- 

 ing continuously. Similar failures resulted from sowings of buck- 

 wheat, mustard, and rape, and the application of fertilizers of various 

 sorts. In fact, nothing tried was found to serve for the destruction of the 

 larv;e, the only method of value arrived at taking eflect on the i)upie and 

 adults in the earth. This was plowing- in the interval between August 

 and the following winter, the plowing to be followed by a thorough 

 pulverization of the soil for the destruction of the earthen cells of the 

 pup;e and adults. 



In this connection I may also mention Osborn's observation that the 

 clover-seed caterpillar may be destroyed completely by cutting the clover 

 while this insect is in the larval state; and the fact reported in the 

 Farmers^ Review, of Chicago, that tlie Mammoth Clover blooms and 

 rii^ens between broods of the clover-seed midge, and thus escapes that 

 insect enemy. 



I cannot pass this point without remarking on what seems to me a 

 loss of opportunity by experiment station entomologists in their failure 

 to avail themselves more generally of the experimental resources of the 

 stations for a trial of variations in agricultural method — in cropping, in 

 preparation of the soil, in cultivation and management of the crops, 

 and the like — as a means of prevention and remedy applicable to the 

 leading- insect enemi'^s of the i)rincipal farm crops. The fact that 



