58 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [March, 



to young cabbage along the coast region eariy this season. Tobacco de- 

 coction and crude carbolic acid applied to the soil around the plants gave 

 the best results. The cotton caterpillars. Heliothis and Aletia, the 

 Northern army worm, the chinch bug, and the imported elm leaf beetle 

 were reported from various localities. Lina scripta, the Western cotton 

 wood beetle, was found on Carolina poplar and cotton wood. Gelechia 

 picipelis was found mining the leaves of tobacco. The bull or horse 

 thistle, Solanmn carolinense seems to be its normal host. The New York 

 plum scale, convex scale, gloomy scale, San Jos^ scale, oyster-shell bark- 

 louse, scurfy bark louse, Euonymus scale and Privet scale were reported 

 from the State. The writer stated that a law directed against insect pests 

 and plant diseases would be presented to the next Legislature for passage. 



In the absence of the authors Dr. Howard read a paper on "Some 

 Results of Recent Studies of Grass Feeding Jassidae" by Herbert Osborn 

 and E. D. Ball. In this paper the authors refer to the previous publica- 

 tions of the senior author on the subject of the damage done to pastures 

 and lawns by the leaf-hoppers of the family Jassidae, and show that while 

 it has been indicated that the loss must be enormous, the insects appear 

 to a great extent to be destroyed by the use of a tar pan or "hopper- 

 dozer." Up to the present time, however, our knowledge of the life- 

 histories of the species involved has been too meagre to furnish a certain 

 basis for remedial measures. The present paper determines the life-history 

 of a number of species, the range of their food-plants, especially in the 

 larval stages, and a study of the specific limits of a larger number of 

 species. 



Following this Dr. Howard read a paper on "The Use of Steam Ap- 

 paratus For Spraying." The speaker, after a brief historical account of 

 the development of hand apparatus for spraying insecticides, considered 

 in detail some twenty machines which have been constructed since 1882, 

 which spray by steam-power, showing that a thoroughly efficient appa- 

 ratus of this kind can be constructed for from $250 to $300. Not only 

 were the especially constructed machines described, but also several 

 make-shift apparatuses which utilized the services of ordinary watering 

 carts and road engines and steam fire-engines. In conclusion, he ex- 

 pressed the opinion that such apparatuses will seldom be constructed by 

 the owners of even larger orchards for their own individual use, but that 

 for community orchard work they are valuable, and will come more and 

 more into use, while the professional sprayer, an individual who is bound 

 to come to the front, will use steam-power machines. Perhaps the greatest 

 value which they possess, however, is for work on shade tree insects in 

 cities and towns. The time is coming when every city which takes a pride 

 in its shade trees will possess one or more of these machines. 



Mr. A. D. Hopkins, of West Virginia, was elected chairman and Mr. 

 M. V. Slingerland, of New York, secretary for the ensuing year. 



W. G. Johnson, 



Temp. Secretary. 



