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

Number 168 on | April, 1928 


STORED—~PRODUCT INSECT INVESTIGATIONS 
E. A. Back, Senior Entomologist, in Charge 
Perez Simmons has perfected a magazine exchange among the ento— 
mologists of the Bureau located on the Pacific Coast. The exchange 
makes available for those interested some 38 different publications. 
‘ On April 17 the manufacturers of cedar chests met in Pittsburgh 
and formed a national organization. A committee of five was appointed 
which held a preliminary meeting at the Raleigh Hotel, Washington, D. C., 
April 26, to consider the advisability of changing where necessary the 
construction of chests so that the cedar content of the chests offered 
the public will range from 70 to 100 per cent. It is interesting to 
note that a recent report of the Department of Commerce indicates that 
the American public is spending about $10,000,000 ayear on cedar chests. 
R. T. Cotton attended the St. Louis meetings of the American 
Chemical Society, April 17 and 18, and took part in the symposium on 
insecticides. He read a paper by Cotton and Roark, entitled "Ethylene 
Oxide as a Fumigant," and discussed another paper by the same authors, 
"Tests of Certain Aliphatic Compounds as Fumigants." On his return trip 
Dr. Cotton visited several candy-manufacturing plants in Chicago. 
The April issue of The Furniture Manufacturer contains a brief 
Mryscie by Back and Cotton, entitled "Moth Proof Your Upholstery.” 
Much interest has been aroused by the fig-endosepsis campaign, 
which consisted in bringing all mammae caprifigs in the State of Cali- 
fornia to Fresno, and distributing to the growers disease-free Blastophaga 
wasps in test tubes. In this work there has heen excellent cooperation 
between the California State Department of Agriculture, the University 
of California, County Horticultural Commissions, the California Dried 
Fruit Association, the California Peach and Fig Growers' Association, 
and individual fig growers. It is anticipated that the result of this 
campaign will be cleaner Calimyrna figs. It will be interesting to learn 
what effect such a campaign will have upon the economic importance of 
the dried-fruit beetle. 
On March 12 A. QO. Larson gave an illustrated talk at a meeting 
of the Denair, Calif., Farm Bureau. On April 4 similar talks were given 
before the high-school students in agriculture at both Denair and Ceres, 
On April 19 Mr. Larson addressed the Ceres Chamber of Commerce. These 
and other talks are part of the campaign for the production of weevil- 
free beans and cowpeas in the bean-growing area centering about Modesto, 
Calif. 
