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MONTHLY LETTER OF THE BUREAU OF ENTOMOLOGY 
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 





Number 2a Tr. February, 1922 
Se EST eh 


JOSEPH DANIEL MITCHELL 
Hon. J. D. Mitchell, of Victoria, Texas, died, after a long 
illness, on February 27, at the age of 72 years, Mr. Mitchell 
was well known te many of the Bureau force who have worked in 
Texas, and was widely known in his State as a thorough naturalist. 
He was a man of prominence and at one time was a member of the 
Texas State legislature. When the headquarters of the cotton 
boll weevil investigation of the Bureau were installed at Vic- 
toria, Mr. Mitchell at once became of the greatest assistance to 
Doctor Hunter and the other men stationed there. His knowledge 
of cotton conditions and his keen powers of observation regarding 
everything in nature gave him a unique standing. Fortunately, in 
1906, the Bureau was able to engage him as a special field agent, 
and he continued in that capacity until the passage of the Civil 
Service retiring act, when under the provisions of the act, his 
appointment was extended beyond the age of seventy for two years. 
He made very many important and original observations, not con- 
fining his studies to insects, but including reptiles, birds, and 
plants; in fact, he was probably the most thoroughly informed 
field naturalist in the State of Texas. He published comparative- 
ly little. He was a rare man, quite of the type of his more famous 
contemporaries, John Muir and John Burroughs. - L.O.H. 
SS SS Se ws ee ee ee eee oe 
BEE CULTURE 
E. F. Phillips, Apiculturist in Charge 
James Eernard Bateman and Winifred S. Hull have been appointed 
temporarily to assist in the work on temperature conditions in the 
bee colony during the active season. Beginning February 26, tem- 
perature readings will be taken every hour night and day until the 
close of brood rearing next fall. 
A motion picture film, "Bees: How they live and work, ''taken 
at Somerset during last summer, was recently released by the Motion 
Picture Laboratory. A second reel giving beekeeping practices for 
a season will soon be complete. 
Nr Te OEP RE? EE re FEE Er FEE TT ee re ee ere reer wee eee 
