REPORTS OF OBSERVATIONS AND EXPERIMENTS IN THE 

 PRACTICAL WORK OF THE DIVISION. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The present bulletin is a continuation of the series of annual reports 

 of the field agents of the Division, Bulletins 22, 23, and 26 of this Divi- 

 sion comprising those for 1889, 1890, and 1891, respectively. 



Mr. Koebele's continued absence in Australia up to the middle of the 

 summer, and other duties connected with the closing up of his last 

 Australian mission, have occupied his time to such an extent that no 

 regular report from him is included. 



Owing to the reduction in the appropriations for the Division, Mr. F. 

 M. Webster, in Ohio, and the apieultural agent, Mr. J. II. Larrabee, 

 in Michigan, were suspended from duty July 1, 1892. The former was 

 immediately appointed entomologist of the Ohio Agricultural Experi- 

 ment Station, and has made no report upon his operations as agent of 

 the Division for the first six months of the year. 



Mr. Larrabee, however, has sent in a somewhat full report upon the 

 experimental work in apiculture, which is published herewith, and which 

 will be found of interest to apiarists. Accounts of his experiments upon 

 the important questions of cross-breeding, temporary removal of the 

 queen to prevent swarming, the amount of honey consumed by bees in 

 secreting one pound of wax, the cultivation of honey plants, and others, 

 are included. 



Mr. D. W. Coquillett, agent at Los Angeles, Cal., reports in full 

 upon his experiments with the beneficial insects received from Mr. 

 Koebele from Australia and New Zealand, giving detailed descriptions 

 of the different states of the species brought over, lie also treats of 

 a span-worm [Boarmia plumigeraria Hnlst), which has lately proved 

 very injurious to Walnut in parts of California, and closes with some 

 account of experiments against the Codling Moth and a few other 

 insects which have been injurious to fruit trees in California during 

 the year. 



The Nebraska agent, Mr. Lawrence Brnner, reports upon the outlook 

 for destructive locusts, but devotes the main part of his report to a 

 consideration of certain sugar-beet insects, closing with a short sum- 

 mary of the miscellaneous injurious insects of the season. 



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