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the card system with the cards on edge so that they can be readily 

 thumbed, and with guides to indicate the approximate position of 

 material arranged alphabetically or numerically. 



In my first experience in Maryland we had our note slips arranged 

 in boxes like spool boxes, with the class or subject on the front. We 

 found, however, that it took considerable time to open the box, hunt 

 through it for a slip, as there was no way to indicate its position in 

 the box, to replace the cover, etc. With the notes arranged on the 

 card system with numerous guide cards, a given note can be quickly 

 found and replaced without disarranging the file. Third is the con- 

 sideration of divisibility. If one wishes information concerning the 

 accesssions of a given species, for instance, he can remove these cards 

 from the file and have them before him without the necessity of hunt- 

 ing through a book and copying off each item. Or in working up a 

 report from notes, it is much more easily done by having all the 

 notes on a uniform size of paper, which can be sorted according to 

 different subjects or phases of the work and written up accordingly, 

 without having to bother with a large volume or several notebooks, 

 the bulk of which is on other subjects than the one in hand. Again, 

 where more than one man is in an office it is a decided advantage to 

 be able to remove certain notes from the file without interfering with 

 the work of another, which would be necessary were they all in one 

 book or in several books in which several species are dealt with. 

 Fourth, compactness is a decided advantage along the same line. In 

 the systematic file are to be found all the notes of a given species, 

 genus, or family, all together, ready for use, with no necessity of 

 looking to an index and hunting them up separately. A fifth point 

 of the greatest importance is that no copying of field notes is neces- 

 sary. Where one has ample time or clerical help this may not be an 

 advantage, but few men have time to recopy notes made in the field, 

 and where it is necessary they alone can do it. With the note slips 

 they are filed just as written in the field, and if written intelligibly 

 will always be so. 



How many a note written on the back of an envelope has been lost. 

 How often has a man gone to a new place and found that though his 

 predecessor has done years of faithful and valuable work, there are 

 no records from which he can gain any knowledge of any of that 

 work, except such as may have been published, or upon which he can 

 build future work. One of the greatest difficulties under which our 

 agricultural colleges and experiment stations are laboring in many 

 States is the frequent change of men. For the present there seems 

 to be no way of avoiding this. But it does seem to the writer that 

 the work of its employee belongs to the station, college, or State, and 

 should not be confined to the entomologist's head and carried off with 

 him when he retires, but should be placed in writing in such intelli- 

 gible shape that a successor can pick up the work and carry it for- 



22564— No. 46—04 3 



