1883.] Recent Literature. 399 
Tue UNITED STATES AGRICULTURAL REPORT FOR I88I AND 
1882.—In former years the agricultural reports were scarcel 
worth the paper on which they were printed. Compiled state- 
ments and unsafe statistics, with hundreds of pages of “padding” 
filled out the pages. In the bulky report before us we see the 
evidence of a new state of things. A large proportion of the 
volume gives to the people the results of field and laboratory 
work by scientific experts who are thoroughly competent and 
have the confidence of scientists as well as of the public. The re- 
port of the entomologist, Professor Riley, follows that of the 
commissioner, Hon. George B. Loring, and occupies upwards of 
150 pages, considerable original matter having been excluded for 
want of space. Professor Riley was assisted during the year 
1881, in the office work and in the preparation of reports, by Pro- 
fessor W. S. Barnard, Messrs, L. Ô. Howard, E. A. Schwarz, T. 
Pergande, B. Pickman Mann, with a number of other agents and 
observers in different parts of the country, while Mr, Riley’s 
predecessor, Professor J. H. Comstock, was engaged at Ithaca, 
» On a special report upon fruit and other insects which 
appears in the present report. From the many life-histories of in- 
sects published in the present report, and the unpublished notes 
which have accumulated, as well as the- character of the ento- 
mologists engaged in the work, both in Washington and in differ- 
ent parts of the Union, North and South, East-and West, it will 
seen that from a purely scientific point of view, we have here 
an amount of biological work accomplished which is most grati- 
ng; and while science is advanced, the most practical results 
are given to the people. We have not space to enumerate the 
insects treated of, but they are those most injurious to crops, with 
many whose habits have been worked out for the first time. As 
a sample of the excellent illustrations, of which there are twenty 
plates, some of which are colored, we are allowed to reproduce 
l. x11, which illustrates the life-history of Sphinx catalpa, which 
ds on the catalpa and is of exceptionable interest because it 
lays its eggs in a mass (4) instead of singly, and for the reason 
that the caterpillars are at first gregarious (4). It also gives an 
idea of the skill of the artist, Mr. Marx. The chromo plates 
ustrating the entire life-history of the boll worm and the army 
Worm are excellent, 
.+» Prominent feature of the report is the space given to insecti- 
ides, and the means of applying them. Here American inven- 
aa Teport of the botanist, Professor G. Vasey, is on the wild 
Cultivated grasses of the United States. It is succeeded by 
Eo TE XVIL—NO, Iv, 28 b i 
oa 
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