I04 Annals of Horticulhire . 



that it will always be easy to secure new colonizations of the 

 vedalia where such may prove necessary, or even new impor- 

 tations should these become desirable.' 



"During the year I have endeavored to return the favors 

 received from Australia and New Zealand by sending there 

 some of the natural enemies of the codlin moth, and from 

 last accounts, though jeopardized by the action of the custom 

 house authorities, the experiment promised success so far as 

 a species of raphidia from California is concerned. I have 

 also endeavored to introduce some of the parasites which at- 

 tack the hessian fly in Europe, and which do not yet occur in 

 this country. These efforts have been made by correspon- 

 dence, for you will be surprised to learn that the restrictive 

 'clause in the appropriations to the department of agricul- 

 ture for entomological work, which limits traveling expenses 

 to the United States, is still maintained in the face of the 

 vedalia experience, where by the expenditure of ^1,500 many 

 millions were saved. The maintenance of this restricting 

 clause in the last appropriation bill, under these circum- 

 stances, is a travesty on legislative wisdom, and all the more 

 remarkable because done by the Senate in opposition to the 

 House and the recommendations of both the Secretary and 

 Assistant Secretary of Agriculture. 



"While there is much to be done in this direction in future, 

 I can not let this occasion pass without giving a note of warn- 

 ing. Success will only come in any particular case when 

 exact knowledge is first obtained and the most thorough 

 scientific methods are then adopted ; and we cannot too 

 severely condemn everything that savors of buncombe and 

 ignorance. During the year the press of the country has pro- 

 minently heralded the fact that a gentleman from San Fran- 

 cisco, especiall}^ charged to study certain entomological mat- 

 ters in the east, found while in Washington the two-spotted 

 ladybird i^Cocinelia convergetata) feeding on "the aphis" right 

 under the windows of the Division of Entomology of the 

 Department of Agriculture, the inference intended being that 

 the entomologist and his assistants were ignorant of the cir- 

 cumstance. Indeed a writer in one of the California papers 

 of recent date announced this discovery under the sensational 

 heading "Another good bug — the woolly aphis has found 

 its Sedan." How supremely ridiculous this sort of thing ap- 



