A os 
STORED-PRODUCT INSECT INVESTIGATIONS 
E. A. Back, in Charge 
The Modesto, Calif., News-Herald for January ll and 12 carried sev— 
eral interesting accounts regarding control of the bean weevil in Stan- 
islaus, Merced, and San Joaquin Counties, and featured illustrations fur-— 
nished by A. 0. Larson and C. K. Fisher. Fifty ranchers residing in Merced 
County met at Hilmar on January 14 and unanimously passed a resolution 
favoring the adoption of a county ordinance providing for the destruction 
of sources, in storage, of development of the bean weevil. Thanks to the 
hearty support given by State and county agricultural agents, the principal 
bean growers of this district are solidly behind the movement to control bean 
weevils. A resolution was proposed the object of which was to retain in 
this district the services of Messrs. Larson and Fisher. 
Perez Simmons and W. D. Reed attended the 2lst annual meeting of 
the Dried Fruit Association of California, held January 10 to 12 at Vel 
Monte, Calif. Mr. Simmons read a paper entitled "Pest Control News." 
Perez Simmons inaugurated on February 7 a periodical exchange for 
1929 among the laboratories of the bureau on the Pacific Coast. Four-— 
teen laboratories are cooperating in the exchange, which includes 441 numbers 
of 33 periodicals, mostly dealing with entomology or closely related sub— 
jects. Among the publications thus made available to each worker are Biolog— 
ical Abstracts, Quarterly Review of Biology, Review of Applied Entomology, 
and Science News Letter. Those entering magazines in the exchange are Messrs. 
Blanchard, Campbell, Cole, Doucette, Elmore, Keen, Lane, Larson, McGregor, 
Newcomer, Rockwood, Shirck, and Simmons. 
Visitors to the Dried Fruit Laboratory at Fresno in February nunm— ~ 
bered 25, and included Professor W. C. O'Kane, Messrs. @. J: Monvomeeame 
B. Russell, and W. C. Taber, of the San Francisco office of the Food, Drug 
and Insecticide Administration, Professors Ralph E. Smith, H. N. Hansen, 
and I. J. Condit, of the University of California, E. P. Roleson, Ghemmeace 
California Packing Corporation, and C. E. Scott, Office of Plant keno 
California State Department of Agriculture. 
On February 21 Dr. Back gave an informal talk on control of fab— 
ric pests at the National Institute of Cleaners and Dyers, at Silver Spring, 
Md. Men attend this institute from all parts of the country, many being 
sent at the expense of the firms by which they are employed. 
On January 7, at the request of a large dried—fruit packing house, 
W. D. Reed was in San Francisco to attend a demonstration of a new ex— 
periment for vacuum fumigation, estimated to have cost $20,000. D. B. 
Mackie, of the California State Department of Agriculture, who is a col- 
laborator of the bureau, and also a representative of business firms, was 
present. 
On January 15 to 18 W. D. Reed tested the new fumigating chamber 
constructed in the San Jose plant of the California Packing Corporation. 
Liquid hydrocyanic acid, ethylene oxide, and a proprietary fumigant were 
used. 

