SPECIAL REPORT FOR YEAR. 37 



force than usual for the last five months of the year. The 

 principal materials examined have been oysters and clams, 

 tested for water content and preservatives ; ice creams, tested 

 for butter fat content ; rice, tested for glucose and talc coat- 

 ings ; pickles, tested for alum and preservatives ; sweet spirits 

 of nitre, which deteriorates quite rapidly, tested for percentage 

 of ethyl nitrite ; butter tested for fat, water, salt and casein ; 

 molasses tested for sucrose, invert sugar, glucose and water. 



FUNGICIDE AND INSECTICIDE INSPECTION. 



One hundred and sixty samples of fungicides and insecticides 

 were collected and examined. They comprised almost all kinds 

 of materials used as disinfectants or insect repellents or 

 destroyers. Many of these were examined only sufficiently to 

 determine if their labels were in conformity with the law. All 

 materials suspected of carrying arsenic were tested and those 

 Vv'ith printed guarantees were analyzed. This included 13 sam- 

 ples of Paris green, lo of lead arsenate, 9 of poison fly paper, 

 5 of arsenite of soda, 3 of bordeaux mixture and lead arsenate, 

 I prepared bordeaux, one of zinc arsenite, one Rough on Rats, 

 and 4 lime-sulphur solutions. 



CREAMERY GLASSWARE. 



Under the state law requiring that the glassware used by 

 creameries for testing milk and cream by the Babcock test shall 

 be tested for accuracy, about the usual number (1,500 to 

 2,000) of pieces have been received. 



Entomology. 



The work of the Department of Entomology has been con- 

 fined chiefly to five lines of investigation during 1913. These 

 are ecological and life history studies of aphids ; a survey of 

 Maine to ascertain the distribution of leaf hoppers, with special 

 attention to those species which give promise of most economic 

 significance ; morphological, ecological and life history studies 

 of the larvae of the sawflies ; a study of seasonal distribution 

 and ecology of Maine crane flies; and field studies of our blue- 

 berry insects. 



