-342 NEW JERSEY AGRICULTUEAL COLLEGE 



June 19th, a second examination was made, much more carefully. 

 The scales had begun to breed and new sets were already abundant, 

 especially upon the fruit. Not only was the search made by sight 

 merely, but branches were beaten over an inverted umbrella to reach 

 concealed specimens, if any. No signs of the Chilocorus were ap- 

 parent — neither larvae, pupae nor adults. 



It was regretfully concluded that the experiment was a failure 

 and that the insects had failed to survive the winter. 



INSECTICIDE EXPERIMENTS. 



It is within bounds to say that more than 50 per cent, of all in- 

 secticide experiments result so unsatisfactorily from one cause or 

 another that they are never recorded. A great many preparations 

 are sent in each year, and so far as opportunity serves they are tested. 

 But sometimes they come too late for a trial against those insects for 

 which they are especially intended, or the insects do not appear in such 

 numbers as to make an application conclusive. An adverse report is 

 never made where the material has not had what I consider a fair 

 chance, and in consequence a great deal of work goes unnoted, while 

 the maker of the material deems the office neglectful. The truth is 

 the Entomologist cannot afford to neglect the opportunity of getting 

 a better or more eifective insecticide than we have in our present bat- 

 tery, and everything that has the element of novelty in composition 

 is investigated. In most cases flat failure results at the first trial, 

 and the experiment closes without report; but where there is the 

 least appearance of value the matter is carried further, even if not 

 finally made the subject of a report. The farmer does not care to 

 read a long series of tests of materials that prove of no use, unless 

 they are such as are or have been offered to him in sucli a way as to 

 make it important for him to know whether they are good for any- 

 thing. His desire, as a rule, is to know what has been found useful 

 and how it should be used. 



It is not, therefore, a proof that a material has not been tested if 

 no record of such a test appears. It simply means that there is 

 nothing good to be said of it so far as the office experience goes. In 

 the present report is given an outline of some of the results observed 

 during the season of 1905. 



