INTKODUCTIOK 



The reports of the six permanent field agents of the Division are in- 

 cluded in this bulletin. They are printed this year in full, but it should 

 be understood that they are little more than summaries of the work in 

 general performed by each one. Special reports upon specific subjects 

 have from time to time been sent in by special direction, and these 

 have been published in Insect Life. 



Mr. Lawrence Bruner, who last year reported upon the insects inju- 

 rious to young trees on tree claims, has the present season devoted 

 much of his attention to insects affecting, or liable to affect, the Sugar 

 beet, a crop of growing importance in the State in which he is located. 

 Although but one season's collecting has been done, some 64 species 

 have been observed to prey upon this crop. As has been shown, nearly 

 all of these can be readily kept in subjection by the use of the kero- 

 sene emulsion or the arsenites. 



Mr. D. W. Coquillett's report is mainly devoted to methods and ap- 

 paratus for the destruction of scale insects by means of fumigation. 

 The experiments were aimed at the Eed Scale, which is one of the most 

 difficult to treat with washes. He describes the simplified tents, the 

 rigging which enables them to be used rapidly, and shows the advantage 

 of excluding the actinic rays of the light. Judging from recent Cali- 

 fornia newspapers the use of this method of fighting scale-insects is 

 rapidly increasing and the comparatively expensive apparatus is al- 

 ready owned by a large number of fruit-growers. This improved 

 method is the legitimate outgrowth of experiments which we instituted 

 at Los Angeles in 1887, and possesses the advantage over spraying that 

 it can hardly be done in a slovenly manner. If used at all its effects 

 are nearly complete. 



Mr. Albert Koebele, while reporting upon a number of interesting 

 fruit pests, notably the Tent Caterpillars of the Pacific slope, and a 

 Noctuid larva which destroys the buds of certain fruit trees, devotes 

 most of his report to the description of certain tests, which I directed 

 him to make with different resin compounds against the Grape Phyllox- 

 era in the Sonoma Valley during September and October of the past 

 year. The results have been fully as satisfactory as we anticipated, and 

 the economy of the process is very striking, labor being practically the 

 only expense. 



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