if 
notes also, on everything relating to economic entomology. He 
visited Villa Ridge, Anna, Cobden, Tamaroa and Centralia, spend- 
ing some time at each of these places, and in October he made 
another trip to Carmi, and other points in the Wabash valley. In 
September, I went with an assistant to Jacksonville and Jerseyville, 
and in November brought the field work practically to a close by 
making a third trip southward to Villa Ridge, Anna, Carbondale 
and Centralia. Field work was constantly in progress in the vicinity 
of Normal, and numerous short trips were also made to points ad- 
jacent. It was the policy of the office to keep all parts of the State, 
as far as possible, under intelligent supervision, and especially to 
visit, either in person or by competent assistants, every point where 
anything of especial interest to the economic entomologist appeared, 
whether in the way of insect injuries not yet clearly understood, or 
destructive outbreaks of familiar enemies, which afforded oppor- 
tunities for field experiments for the control of their injuries. 
For the purpose of securing early notice of such events, and also 
with the hope of distributing practical information concerning in- 
jurious insects just where and when it was most needed, | early 
took measures to put the office in immediate communication with 
farmers and fruit growers throughout the State. With this end in 
view, I issued in July, through the usual channels of the depart- 
ment, and by every other method available, a circular inviting cor- 
respondence, not only from entomological observers, but also from 
those in want of information or advice respesting insects injurious 
to their property. I am happy to say that this circular, widely 
published by the press, had apparently an excellent effect. The 
correspondence of the office has rapidly grown, two hundred and 
eighteen letters having been written on economic entomology since 
the first of July, but “it is not yet by any means as large as it 
should be; and I cherish the hope that those for whose benefit we 
are working will more generally form a habit of referring to us for 
needed information, and of contributing in turn to the common 
stock of knowledge from their own observation and experience. 
The most important special investigations undertaken this season 
were those upon the corn root-worm, the chinch-bug, and the straw- 
berry crown-borer, together with studies upon the food of the pre- 
daceous insects and upon certain questions related to the food of 
birds. Much time and thought was given to a research upon the 
contagious diseases of the chinch-bug, and some substantial progress 
was made in a knowledge of the subject. Many experiments were 
also made with insecticides, especially for the chinch-bug, the plant- 
lice, and the cabbage-worms. The life histories of the corn root- 
worm and of the strawberry crown-borer were completed, and several 
previously published mistakes of observation or inference were cor- 
rected. A large number of dissections of those insects which have 
hitherto been reckoned almost wholly carnivorous, and therefore 
highly beneficial, were made with a view to determining exactly their 
value to the farmer, and the conditions under which they could live 
in the absence of a supply of insect food. Substantially complete 
results were reached for the two most important families of beetles 
of this class—the lady-bugs (Coccinellide) and the predaceous ground 
beetles (Carabide), and the results have been published this month 
