SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XVII. No. 414 



valuable when used against the fluted and other scale-insects. 

 The results have been quite encouraging, and the experiments 

 have already shown that in the use of these washes we have 

 a valuable addition to the underground remedies. Soaps 

 were made by the use of bicarbonate of soda, sal soda, and 

 caustic soda, each mixed with resin. In the earlier experi- 

 ments the earth was removed about the base of the vine to a 

 depth of six inches and for a diameter of four feet. Ten 

 gallons of the mixture were poured into each hole, and found 

 to penetrate from twelve to sixteeti inches or from eighteen 

 to twenty-two inches from the original surface of the ground. 

 Most of the insects, as also the eggs, were destroyed to a 

 depth of sixteen inches. In the later experiments the holes 

 were made only about two feet in diameter; and nearly if 

 not quite the same results were obtained with half the 

 amount, or five gallons of the mixture. The plan which I 

 have previously adopted for the application of insecticides to 

 underground insects, of washing the mixture in with pure 

 water, was tried with good success. Soon after the first 

 application, five gallons of water were added, and five gallons 

 more the following day. This would indicate that in the 

 spring, when rains are frequent (occurring almost every day) 

 in the Sonoma valley, only a small amount of the mixture 

 need be applied, and the rains will do the rest, as examina- 

 tion has shown that up to a certain point each application 

 of water intensifies and extends the action of the original 

 insecticide. The best soap was made wiih bicarbonate of 

 soda; but the results of that made with caustic soda are so 

 little inferior, while the price is so much less, that the 

 caustic soda and resiu soap mixture is the one which I would 

 recommend. The formula which was found preferable is as 

 follows: caustic soda (77 per cent), five pounds; resin, forty 

 pounds; water to make fifty gallons. 



The soda should be dissolved over a fire in four gallons of 

 water, then the resin should be added and dissolved. After 

 this, the required water can be added slowly, while boiling, 

 to make the fifty gallons of the compound. To this water 

 may be added at the rate of nine gallons for one, making 

 five hundred gallons of the dilute compound, sufficient for 

 one hundred large vines, at a cost of only eighty-four cents, 

 or less than a cent a vine. 



Considering the effective way in which the ravaged vine- 

 yards of France have been and are being redeemed by the 

 use of resistant American stocks, and considering the efficacy 

 of some of the direct remedies discovered, it is passing strange 

 that no disposition has ever been made of the premium of 

 300,000 francs offered in the early history of the trouble by 

 the French Government. It cannot be awarded to any one 

 person, but should be distributed among those whose labors 

 and discoveries resulted in the several feasible and satisfac- 

 tory methods of coping with the insect. 



Introduction of Parasites and Predaceous Species. 



The success which has attended the introduction from 

 Australia of Vedalia cardinalis has been phenomenal. In- 

 deed, few who have not kept in knowledge of the reports 

 and the actual condition of things can appreciate the re- 

 markable character of the results, not only because of the 

 brief period required therefor, but because of the thoroiigh- 

 ness of the work of the little ladybird, and the moral and 

 financial benefit too range-growers which has followed in 

 its wake. 



The striking success of the expei-iment has served to fix 

 attention not only of entomologists, but of fruit-growers and 

 farmers, to this mode of dealing with injurious insects; and 

 there is no question but that the cases in which the experi- 



ment may be more or less successfully repeated are numerous.. 

 Let us hope, therefore, that the moral effect will be as great 

 as its practical effect in opening up means and ways in the 

 future, as it should serve to remove the disposition to deride 

 any expenditure having such results for its object. Many 

 fears have been expressed, lest, after sweeping off the Icerya,. 

 the Vedalia, being so far as we now know confined to that 

 species for food, should perish, and that the Icerya, preserved 

 in some restricted places undiscovered by its enemy, would 

 again multiply and become destructive. I firmly believe 

 what I wrote in my last annual report as United States en- 

 tomologist: viz., — 



" We mjy hardly hope, however, that the last chapter in 

 the story is written. On the contrary, it is more than prob- 

 able, and in fact we strongly anticipate, that the Icerya will 

 partially recuperate; that the Vedalia will, after its first 

 victorious spread, gradually decrease for lack of food; and 

 that the I'emnants of the fluted scale will in the interim 

 multiply and spread again. This contest between the plant- 

 feeder and its deadliest enemy will go on with alternate fluc- 

 tuations in the supremacy of either, varying from year tO' 

 year according to locality or conditions; but there is no rea- 

 son to doubt that the Vedalia will continue substantially 

 victorious, and that the power for serious harm, such as the 

 Icerya has done in the past, has been forever destroyed. 

 We have learned, also, that it will always be easy to secure 

 new colonizations of the Vedalia where such may prove 

 necessary, or even new importations 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 codling-moth ; and from 

 last accounts, though jeopardized by the action of the cus- 

 tom-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 attack the Hessian-fly in Europe, and which do not 

 yet occur in this country. These efforts have been made by 

 correspondence; for you will be surprised to learn that the 

 restrictive clause in'the appropriations to the Department of 

 Agriculture for entomological work, which limits travelling 

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

 of the Vedalia experience, where, by the expenditure of fif- 

 teen hundred dollars, many millions were saved. The 

 maintenance of this restricting clause in the last appropria- 

 tion bill, under these circumstances, is a travesty on legisla- 

 tive wisdom, and all the more remarkable because done by 

 the Senate, in opposition to the House and the recommenda- 

 tions of both the secretary and assistant secretary of agricul- 

 ture. 



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

 I cannot let this occasion pass without giving a note of 

 warning. Success will only come in any particular case 

 when exact knowledge is first obtained, and the most thor- 

 ough scientific methods are then adopted; and we cannot 

 too severely condemn every thing that savors of buncombe 

 and ignorance. During the year, the press of the country 

 has prominently heralded the fact that a gentleman from San 

 Francisco, especially charged to study certain entomological 

 matters in the East, found, while in Washington, the two- 

 .spotted ladybird (CocciweZZa bipunctaia) feeding on "the 

 spotted Aphis'''' right under the windows of the Division of 

 Entomology of the Department of Agriculture, the infer- 

 ence intended being that the entomologist and his assistants 

 were ignorant of the circumstance. Indeed, a writer in one 

 of the California papers of recent date announced this dis- 



