June 12, 1903.] 



SCIENCE. 



929 



state agricultural experiment stations or 

 under the Department of Agriculture, 

 amounts to less than two hundred thousand 

 dollars annually. Public interest in this 

 work and confidence in the recommenda- 

 tions of entomologists is growing. This 

 means that the service is being encour- 

 aged by larger appropriations. When the 

 speaker came to Washington twenty-five 

 years ago four thousand dollars was appro- 

 priated for this work, which was carried 

 on by two men; now nearly one hundred 

 thousand dollars is appropriated and about 

 twenty-five scientific experts are employed. 

 The work is well systematized and is being 

 carried on under the following heads : 



1. Field crop insect investigations, in- 

 cluding a southern section which comprises 

 the insects injurious to cotton, tobacco and 

 sugar cane, and a northern section which 

 investigates the species damaging cereals 

 and forage plants. 



2. Fruit insect investigations, with a 

 northern section devoted to the deciduous 

 orchard fruits, and a southern section 

 which cares for citrous and other tropical 

 fruits. 



3. Small fr.uit and truck crop insect in- 

 vestigations. 



4. Forest and forest-product insect in- 

 vestigations. 



5. Insecticide and insecticide machinery 

 investigations, which include a section of 

 field operations and experiments and a sec- 

 tion of chemical analyses and tests. 



6. Investigations of insects afEecting 

 stored products, such as cereal, animal and 

 other food substances, materials and fabrics 

 of all sorts. 



7. Investigations of insects in relation 

 to diseases of man and other animals, 

 and as animal parasites. The enormous 

 importance of mosquitoes in relation to 

 malaria and yellow fever, and of flies to 

 typhoid, has drawn very general popular 



attention toward this phase of the work. 



8. Special insect investigations, which in- 

 clude a section for the investigation and 

 introduction of beneficial insects, a section 

 for the study of fungous and other diseases 

 of insects, and a section for emergency and 

 unclassified work. 



9. The conduct of an insect laboratory 

 and the care of collections, as well as the 

 care of an experimental garden. 



10. Investigations in bee culture. 



11. Investigations in silk culture. 



The speaker, with some little detail, de- 

 scribed some of the operations carried on 

 under these respective heads, and dwelt 

 especially upon the work now being prose- 

 cuted in Texas against the Mexican cotton 

 boll weevil, an insect which has caused a 

 money loss to Texas cotton planters, dur- 

 ing the past three years, of approximately 

 seventy-five millions of dollars. He showed 

 that this insect may be practically handled 

 by simple variations in the cropping meth- 

 ods in use in tTie state of Texas, and de- 

 scribed certain large-scale demonstrations 

 which have been carried on during the past 

 year upon farms of 150 and 200 acres, 

 respectively. 



He also spoke especially of the introduc- 

 tion of a fig-fertilizing insect from Algeria 

 which has rendered possible the cultivation 

 of the Smyrna fig in the United States, and 

 also of the recent introduction of a lady- 

 bird beetle from China which feeds upon 

 the San Jose scale. 



Economic Work of the Biological Survey: 

 Dr. C. Haet Merriam, chief of Division. 

 The Biological Survey comprises three 

 independent sections: The Biological Sur- 

 vey proper, which studies the geographic 

 distribution of animals and plants and de- 

 termines the boundaries -of the life zones 

 and crop zones; the section of economic 

 ornithology, which studies the food and 



