50 a KXPERDIEXT STATION. [Jan. 



sent a saving to the institution, over the cost of equivalent 

 kinds and amounts if purchased, of about S2,500. Sera of 

 these kinds are suitable for use for about one year. Each year 

 the process of preparation must be repeated and new standards 

 obtained. 



It is worthy of note that practicing veterinarians are typically 

 unable to give service with reference to poultry diseases. It is 

 partly due to this fact that commercial poultrj^ raisers have 

 sometimes been unable to combat the attacks of contagious 

 disease. The Experiment Station now performs in this diag- 

 nostic work a unique service, which is not duplicated by any 

 commercial organization, or, in fact, by any organization in 

 New England. How far the station should go in doing this 

 work is a question. There is no doubt, however, that to date 

 it has resulted in greatly bettering conditions in what is in 

 Massachusetts a large taxpaying agricultural industry. 



Insect Conditions of the Year 1921 in Massachusetts. 



Department of Entomology, 

 Dr. H. T. Fernald, Head. 



In most ways the year 1921 was an ordinary one, so far as 

 insects are concerned, in this State, only two instances of an 

 unusual character developing. 



The first of these was a rather serious but quite local out- 

 break of the seed-corn maggot {Hylemyia cilicrura Rond.) in 

 the onion fields in and near Whately, Hatfield and Sunderland. 

 This insect, so far as any records thus far found go, has never 

 before been reported as injuriously abundant in the State. 



The onion fields affected were planted early in April, and 

 because of cold, wet weather the plants were just appearing 

 by the first of May, and were very few in number. Examina- 

 tion at that time showed an abundance of the maggots at- 

 tacking the sprouts soon after they had started, and working 

 back to the seed itself. From larvte collected in the fields the 

 adults were raised and their identity verified. It was noticeable 

 that the fields fertilized with cottonseed meal were the ones 

 chiefly infested, no maggots being found in those not so ferti- 

 lized, even when adjacent to afl'ected ones. No trace of the 

 insect was found in the cottonseed meal itself before its use. 

 It was necessary to replant most of the aft'ected fields, which, 



