ENTOMOLOGY AND THE WAR—HOWARD. 418 
As will be remembered, one of the earliest matters taken up by 
the Congress of the United States after the declaration of war in 
April, 1917, was the consideration of appropriations for the stimu- 
lation of crop production, and in this consideration, naturally, one of 
the points was the control of the principal insect enemies of staple 
crops. Prior to any congressional action, however, the Bureau of 
Entomology started a country-wide reporting service on the condi- 
tions concerning these principal insect enemies, and engaged in excel- 
lent cooperation, not only all of the State entomologists, the entomolo- 
gists of all of the agricultural experiment stations and the teachers 
of entomology in the colleges, but also the demonstration agents, the 
statistical agents, both State and Federal, the weather observers, 
and the field men of the Forest Service. The idea was to bring about 
as far as possible almost a census of insect damage and prospects, 
so that the earliest possible information should be gained as to any 
alarming increase in numbers of any given pest and that. this infor- 
mation should be received at a common point (Washington) and 
distributed where it should be of the most good, and that it would 
enable repressive measures to be undertaken at the earliest possible 
moment in order to check the threatened loss. All reports received 
in this way were digested and were distributed all through the grow- 
ing seasons of 1917 and 1918 to the official entomolgists of the 
country. 
Soon after this service was instituted the funds for food-crop 
stimulation became available, and trained men were employed for 
demonstration work to act in connection with the extension service 
of the department and of the different State colleges of agriculture. 
These men were assigned to different localities and took care of the 
demonstration work against the principal pests of staple crops all 
over the United States. Some of them were specialists in the in- 
sects which attack truck crops; others in those which damage field 
crops; others in those which affect orchards, and so on. Especial 
attention was given to the control of the grasshoppers which dam- 
age grain and forage crops and to the sweet-potato weevil, an insect 
which bids fair to seriously affect the output of the South of this 
important vegetable. 
Aided, it is true, to a considerable extent by the winter of 1917-18, 
which from its unprecedented cold had a destructive effect upon 
many important insect pests, and to a lesser extent by the char- 
acter of the winter of 1916-17, which also was a hard one for inju- 
rious insects, the economic entomologists, including the demon- 
strators, accomplished much. Owing to peculiar weather condi- 
tions in the early spring of 1917, certain insects not hitherto notably 
conspicuous appeared in great abundance and added new problems 
