8o 



SCrENCE. 



[Vol. XIX. No. 470 



them for years, while all the races subjected to the process 

 yielded a larger crop of better silk than before. So marked 

 was this improvement that a comparison will show it at a 

 glance. In the first report, already alluded to, made in 

 1885, Mr. Griffltt's yield of cocoons — considered a splendid 

 return at the time — was 78 kilogrammes (171 pounds avoir- 

 dupois) per ounce of eggs set to hatch, while in 1890 the 

 harvest was 91 kilogrammes (200 pounds) per ounce of eggs. 

 These figures have been vouched for by M. E. Charmand, 

 chief of the Smyrna branch of the "Direction Generale de 

 r Ad ministration de la Dette Publique Ottomane, a Constan- 

 tinople," who reported his observations, gathered from time 

 to time in Mr. GrifiBtt's factory at Bournabat, to his superiors 

 at the Turkish capital. 



Following up these efforts, and stimulated by the ill-suc- 

 cess of the French sericulturists, Mr. Gritfitt last year 

 achieved an additional triumph, his latest crop showing an 

 advance to 92 kilogrammes (202 pounds) of cocoons per 

 ounce of eggs. This harvest had likewise been watched 

 through all its stages, and reported upon to the Constantino- 

 ple authorities by the same gentleman already named, who 

 added that as the yield from foreign eggs had been nil at 

 Bournabat, their importation into Turkey ought to be 

 stopped. 



It will be evident to the readers of the above and former 

 communications that Mr. John GrifRtt's single-handed and 

 almost phenomenal success in sericulture, in the face of the 

 utter failure of the best silk-farmers of France, point to 

 Bournabat as the future sericultural school of the world, and 

 as the entrepot for robust graine. If further Bgures be re- 

 quired, they are to be found in the circumstance that during 

 the last four or five years the finest French eggs hatched at 

 Bournabat have only yielded from 10 to 12 kilogrammes (22 

 to 26 pounds) of cocoons per ounce, as compared with Mr. 

 GriSitt's 92 kilogrammes (202 pounds) per ounce of eggs; 

 while last season, according to M. Charmand, the French 

 eggs laid out at Bournabat did not hatch at all. 



William Cochran. 



Oversale, Dunblane, Perthshire. 



MR. EOEBELE'S SECOND TRIP TO AUSTRALIA.' 



We have not yet mentioned in these pages the fact that 

 Mr. Koebele has been sent out to Australia and New Zealand 

 a second time on a search for beneficial insects. The Cali- 

 fornia State Legislature last winter appropriated SS.OOO for 

 sending some one to Australia for this purpose, and this sum 

 was placed at the disposal of the State Board of Horticulture. 

 The board soon afterward made application to the Secretary 

 of Agriculture to have Mr. Koebele sent, placing the entire 

 appropriation at the secretary's disposal. To this proposition 

 the secretary assented on condition that Mr. Koebele should 

 go under instructions from the department, his salary as an 

 agent of the division of entomology being continued (his ex- 

 penses only to be paid by the State Board of Horticulture), 

 and that his report should be made to the Department of 

 Agriculture, the desire being to co-operate as far as possible 

 with the board. Accordingly, such instructions were given 

 as seemed best to promote the object in view, cautioning Mr. 

 Koebele particularly to run no risk, in his sendings from 

 Australia, of importing with the beneficial insects any inju- 

 rious species not now existing in the United States which it 

 might prove disastrous to introduce, and taking advantage 

 of the occasion also to have him make every effort to collect 



1 Prom Insect Lite for December, issued by the U. S. Division of Entomol- 



in California certain beneficial species to take with him to^ 

 Australasia, indicating such species as prey upon cosmopoli- 

 tan insects or species which the colonies mentioned have de- 

 rived from America. 



Mr. Koebele sailed on the August steamer, stopping at 

 Honolulu and Auckland, and arriving at Sydney the latter 

 part of October. At Honolulu he left a number of living 

 specimens of Chilocorus bividnerus in the hands of our cor- 

 respondent, Mr. A. Jaeger, and secured while there four 

 species of lady-birds, of which he sent small numbers to Cal- 

 ifornia by steamer. These were sent for use against the 

 black scale (Lecanium olece). He also found a few parasitic 

 Chalcididse on an undetermined Lecanium, and of these he 

 also sent a few specimens. Upon his arrival in New Zealand 

 some of the lady-birds which he had taken with him were 

 alive and began to feed at once upon woolly aphis^ 

 Some syrphus flies and lace-wing flies were also in good 

 condition, as were also the larvae of the Rhaphidia, which 

 feeds upon the codling moth. These were left in competent 

 charge. Specimens of Scymnus acceptus, S. consor, S^ 

 villosus, S. flavihirtus, and S. fagus were collected and sent 

 to California. These all prey upon various species of scale 

 insects, but it is hardly to be supposed that they will accom- 

 plish any better results in California than do our native 

 species of this genus, all of which have a similar habit. 



The most encouraging information comes to us under date 

 of Nov. 1 from Sydney. He there finds that Orcus chalyheus, 

 a steel blue lady-bird, is a most important enemy of the red 

 scale. He has found them by the hundreds, and has ob- 

 served the mature insects eating the scales. All of the trees 

 were " full of eggs." and the larvffi were swarming upon all 

 the orange and lemon trees infested with the red scale. He 

 secured and sent a large lot of the eggs and many of the 

 adult beetles. He also sent the allied Orcus australasice, 

 also found feeding upon the red scale, and a number of 

 scymnids, one of which w.'is very numerous, feeding upon 

 the same scale-insect. Another species was found feeding^ 

 mainly upon the flat scale (Lecanium hesperiduni) and the 

 black scale (Lecanium olece). He also forwarded a number 

 of Leis conformis, which, as stated in Bulletin No. 21 of this 

 division, is the commonest enemy of the woolly root-louse of 

 the apple. Unfortunately Mr. Koebele does not state whether 

 the three insects mentioned as feeding upon the -red scale 

 were successful in holding that destructive insect in check, 

 and upon this point naturally depends much of their 

 value to California. Our agent at Los Angeles, Mr. D. W. 

 Coquillett, has been instructed to spare no pains to properly 

 care for and colonize whatever may be received from Mr. 

 Koebele, and is fully prepared to do so. This large sending 

 arrived at Los Angeles, we are sorry to state, in rather bad 

 condition. Twenty-eight beetles, however, were alive, in- 

 cluding nine of 0. chalybeus, and no effort will be spared 

 to keep them in good condition and to induce them to prop- 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 



♦** Correspondents are reqxiested to be as brief as possible. The ioriter''s nanh 

 is in all cases required as proof of good faith. 



On request in advaJice, one hundred copies of the number containing his 

 communication will be furnished free to any correspondent. 



Tiie editor will be glad to publish any queries consonant toith the characttr 

 of the joiirnal. 



The First Locomotive. 



I AM surprised that your correspondent, " M. H.," in his article 

 in your issue of the 15th, '* The First Locomotive Run in Amer- 

 ica," should have been so mistaken in its name. There is a smalt 



