12 



Many of the State Agricultural Experiment Stations have well-known 

 entomologists on their staff. Last year, including Hawaii and Porto Rico, 

 there were fifty-one stations with entomological workers ; so that the list of 

 official entomologists in the United States is a long one, and contains names 

 of men who have made a world-wide reputation. 



At Washington, each officer works at a certain group or division, as Dr. 

 A. D. Hopkins, who is in charge of Forest Insect Investigations, and Professor 

 F. M. Webster, in charge of Cereal and Forage Plant Insect Investigations, 

 Others rank as assistant entomologists, and often deal with a single order of 

 insects, such as D. W. Coquiller, who takes the flies (Diptera\ and Dr. Swartz 

 the beetles (Goleoptera). These specialists, again, have their assistants ; while 

 there are always a number of men on the staff who are known as special 

 field agents. 



Under the Department of Agriculture there are ten well-defined Scientific 

 Bureaux and Divisions, some of which are again split into smaller subdivi- 

 sions ; but the ten gentlemen in charge are responsible for the working of 

 their respective branches, and deal directly with Mr. Wilson, the Secretary 

 of Agriculture. There is no Director of Agriculture, and the system 

 apparently works very well. 



One of the weak points in the smaller subdivisions is that the ambitious 

 man, when he becomes head of a subdivision, tries to get all the subjects 

 allied to his particular subject into his hands at the expense of the next 

 man ; and as the sub-divisions increase this will become more acute, and the 

 work may overlap. 



I spent a fortnight, under Dr. Howard's advice, first visiting all the 

 different officers of the Entomological Staff, some of whom work in the 

 National Mus-um, while others are scattered about in offices and buildings 

 rented by the Department until their new building is completed, and after- 

 wards the heads of the other bureaux. With Mr. C. L. Marlatt I went 

 through the collection of Coccidce (scale insects), which is by far the largest 

 collection in the world of these important pests. Still, until the last few 

 years there was hardly a collection of any kind of these insects in any of the 

 scientific museums. Here all the micro-slides of coccids are kept in paper 

 envelopes, and arranged in cabinets like small card catal igues. Coccids are 

 very unsatisfactory insects to arrange in reference collections, and every 

 worker at these scale insects has some special method of preserving them. 

 In Hawaii they wero all kept in glass tubes plugged with cotton wool : in 

 Washington they are p'aced in shallow cardboard boxes, that fit close 

 together in insect cabinet drawers, the name of each written across the out- 

 side, and all par.iculars written and placed inside with the specimen. All 

 the specimens in the National Museum collection, which are in charge of 

 Dr. Howard, and those in the working collections in the offices, have a stock- 

 book number, a system which was started when the collections were first 

 formed. I examined all tho mealy bugs or soft-bodied coccids with Mr. 

 Sanders, who is in charge of one section of the Coccidce, and is inspector of 

 plants introduced into the United States. Under the care of Mr. Oliver .1 

 went through ths propagating grounds, wh< re there are many wonderful 

 plant experiments being carried out in a series of large glass-houses upon 

 hybridization, development of strong-rooted grasses, layering and grafting of 

 mangoes and other tropical fruits. 



Some time WHS spent with Mr. Nathan Banks, the authority on lace- 

 winged flies (tfeuroptera), and also in charge of ticks and mites, to whom I 

 submitted specimens of doubtful Queensland cattle ticks given me for expert 

 determination by the Chief of our Stock Branch in Sydney. 



