EXPERIMENT STATION. 
5 
the better preserved, and the species more readily deter¬ 
mined. 
Send as full an account as possible of the habit of 
the insects about which you desire information. 
In sending pinned specimens of insects, always 
secure them safely in a box, to be inclosed within a 
larger box, the space between the two to be packed with 
cotton, to prevent too violent jarring. 
SENDING PLANTS FOR NAME. 
Plants may be sent by mail, placed between sheets 
of thin paper, and protected with stout card board ; or, 
they may be wrapped in moist paper or moss, and sent 
in a stout paper box. 
Small plants should be sent entire, including the 
root, bowers and fruit; of larger plants, send a portion of 
the stem with its leaves, flowers and fruit. 
In writing, state the character of the soil on which 
the plant grew, and whether it is moist, wet or otherwise. 
Section of Meteorology and Irrigation Engineering. 
This Section wishes to study Meteorology principally 
from the standpoint of agriculture, and will, therefore, 
pay more especial attention to those observations which 
are of influence on, or throw light upon, the laws of plant 
growth. 
Among the observations which can be easily made, 
and which give valuable results for the labor expended, 
are those on the rainfall. A fair idea of the amount of rain 
falling in a shower may be obtained by putting out a ves¬ 
sel with vertical sides—as the ordinary two-quart pail, or 
a tin fruit can—and measuring the rain after the shower. 
But when the rainfall is slight, such measurement is dif¬ 
ficult to make directly. In instruments made directly for 
the purpose, the rain is conducted to a smaller vessel, 
