1920.1 PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 31. 31a 



DEPARTMENT OF ENTOMOLOGY. 



1/ 



H. T. FERNALD AXD A. I. BOURNE. 



The following summary of the work of the department of 

 entomology during 1919 is herewith presented. 



The resignation, the 1st of May, of Mr. Quincy S. Lowry, 

 LTnited States Extension Service Agent in Massachusetts, left 

 a large amount of extension work to be carried on by the 

 department. Correspondence amounting to between 2,000 and 

 3,000 letters during the year was of this nature, and as it fre- 

 quently happens that no diagnosis of the cause of the injury 

 complained of is immediately possible without further details, 

 several letters are often needed before advice can safely be 

 given. 



In many cases all the information obtainable by corre- 

 spondence fails to result in recognition of the pest. Persons 

 asking for assistance frequently realize this difficulty, and urge 

 personal visits and an examination on the spot, and this is 

 becoming more frequent each year. Such visits have proved 

 to be more satisfactory and also more efficient than letter 

 writing, as would naturally be expected, and when they can 

 be accompanied by a demonstration of the right way to pre- 

 pare and apply the proper control measures, the highest degree 

 of helpfulness is attained. Unfortunately, absences from town 

 interfere seriously with the experimental work of the station, 

 for which its staff is engaged, so such assistance is given less 

 frequently than should be the case. 



During the growing season of our crops — June to Septem- 

 ber — many people, instead of writing, make personal visits to 

 the office or use the telephone, long-distance calls being very 

 frequent. This was so much the case during 1919 as to call 

 for the almost constant presence of one man at the office 



