506 The American Naturalist [June, 



Gypsy Moth Extermination.— The last Keport of the Massa- 

 chusetts Gypsy Moth Commission shows that decided progress has been 

 made in checking the pests. About $130,000 was spent during 1895. 

 In commenting on the policy of State control of the pest, Prof. C. H. 

 Fernald writes : 



The value of the taxable property in this State is $2,429,832,966, 

 and an appropriation of $200,000 is a tax of less than one-twelfth of a 

 mill on a dollar. A man having taxable property to the amount of 

 $5,000 would have to pay a tax of only 41 cents and 6 mills. This 

 beggarly sum of money would make but a small show in the work of 

 clearing gypsy moth caterpillars from an infested $5,000 farm, while 

 in the uniufested parts of the State the land owners would be paying 

 an exceedingly small premium to the State to insure them against the 

 ravages of the gypsy moth. This premium on a $1,000 farm would 

 be 8 J cents, and for fifty years it would amount to only $4.1 6i cents. 

 This protection would extend not only to farmers and owners of forest 

 lands, but also to residents in villages and cities who own lots with trees 

 and shrubs on them, and to vegetation wherever grown within the 

 limits of our Commonwealth. 



Entomological Notes. — Messrs Howard & Marlatt publish, as 

 Bulletin No. 3, of the United States Division of Entomology, an 

 elaborate discussion (80 pages) of The San Jose Scale : Its Occurrences 

 in the United States, with a Full Account of its Life-history and the 

 Remedies to be used against it. 



In reporting 3 on the 1895 experiments with the Chinch-Bug diseases, 

 Prof. F. H. Snow says that the year's experience corroborates the con- 

 clusion of former years that Sporotrichum is ineffective unless the 

 weather conditions favor its development. 



In Bulletin 36, of the Hatch Experiment Station of Massachusetts, 

 Messrs Fernald and Cooley discuss the imported Elm Leaf Beetle, the 

 Maple Pseudococcus, the Abbot Sphinx and the San Jose Scale. 



Some potato insects are discussed by Prof. H. Garman in Bulletin 61 

 of the Kentucky Experiment Station. 



Mr. M. V. Slingerland continues the excellent entomological bul- 

 letins from the Cornell University Experiment Station. Recent issues 

 ■deal with Climbing Cutworms (Bulletin 104), Wireworms and the Bud 

 Moth (107) and the Pear Psylla and Plum Scale (108). 



In Bulletin No. 43, of the Minnesota Experiment Station, Prof. Otto 



Lugger discusses Insects Injurious in 1895. The Bulletin covers about 



3 Fifth Keport of Experiment Station of the University of Kansas. Lawrence, 



