Among the beekeepers of the country there has been an effort for organization for the better marketing of the crop, resulting in the forming of two large cooperative societies, both of which were assisted by the Bureau of Markets of this department. As has been indicated, there has also been a tendency for the beekeepers to organize for better education and mutual help.

The work of the bureau in bee culture during the year has therefore been chiefly a continuation of the campaign for increasing the honey crop of the country as a war measure, and to a large degree the regular investigations of the bee-culture section have either been curtailed or have been discontinued, except that on the diseases of bees, which is so important and so immediately applicable that it can not be stopped without great loss.

DEMONSTRATIONS IN BEE CULTURE.-Under the regular appropriation three men are assigned to extension work in cooperation with the regular extension service of the department and of the various States. There was also assigned to this office, from funds available under the food-production act, $15,000, which was also applied wholly to extension work. Since this work was all conducted as one project, it is best not to attempt to separate it according to the two sources of funds.

The main feature of the extension work in beekeeping is an effort to increase the honey crop of the country as a food-production measure. The shortage of sugar has made it necessary to increase the supply of all the supplemental sweets, and none of them may be increased more economically and profitably than honey, and none of them is of more value as food. As has been pointed out in a statement from the Office of the Secretary (Circular No. 87), the amount of nectar which annually is permitted to dry up and thus go to waste far exceeds the amount of sugar of all kinds consumed by the American people, and this waste is of the highest economic importance, especially in time of war.

The first work in extension has been with those who already have. bees, and no effort has been made to induce more persons to take up beekeeping. It has been shown clearly that it is unwise to encourage the keeping of bees generally, for the presence of the brood diseases, and especially the necessity of good care in winter, make beekeeping a branch of agriculture that demands specialization. However, it is realized that there must be provision for the making of beekeepers for the future, and the most promising methods seem to be through the clubs organized in connection with the extension work. In order that material may be available when it is needed, work has been begun on a program for a boys' club, and a series of special circulars is being prepared for use in connection with this program.

During the year 16 men have been employed in beekeeping extension work, and considerable additional field work has been performed by 4 men regularly employed in the Washington office. Three of these men have been called to the Army and six have resigned to take up commercial beekeeping, the present profits in beekeeping making it extremely difficult to maintain a regular force for this work. The first man appointed under the food-production act began work in November, 1917, so that most of the work has been during the last half of the fiscal year. During this time the field force has held 713

meetings of beekeepers in 34 States, reaching over 25,000 beekeepers, and, in addition, they have visited 1,198 apiaries and have given personal instruction to the owners regarding their beekeeping practices. An important part of the work has been the organization of the beekeepers in various counties into local associations for the betterment of beekeeping conditions. During the year 84 such associations were formed and plans are made for a considerable number of others to be perfected during the coming year.

An interesting and valuable phase of the extension work consists of reports on conditions pertaining to beekeeping in the various counties visited by the field staff. These are filed geographically and have already served as a valuable guide in planning the work of the field men. In time these reports, which are made incidentally as the men go about their work, will serve as a survey of the beekeeping conditions throughout the country. These reports are also furnished the extension divisions, thus making the information available to the State men engaged in the promotion of the beekeeping industry.

During the first part of the fiscal year a number of mimeograph circulars were sent to beekeepers direct, especially some urging that better care be given the bees during the winter. As the field force was enlarged this part of the work was discontinued, but it is believed that these circulars were the means of doing a great deal of good in calling to the attention of beekeepers the necessity of increasing the honey crop as a war measure. The practical advice given also served to bring about better conditions among those beekeepers who may be reached by that method, but obviously the personal contact of the field men is more effective.

In order to provide information regarding various practices of practical beekeeping two bulletins have been prepared during the year. Farmers' Bulletin 503 on comb honey has been revised and a new Farmers' Bulletin on the transferring of bees to modern hives (No. 961) has been issued. The latter bulletin will be especially applicable in certain parts of the country where modern methods have not been much practiced, but where the extension men have been at work. In view of the necessity of providing the field force with additional help and especially of the need of more practical literature on beekeeping, several additional popular bulletins are projected.

In addition to these publications there have been prepared during the year two publications showing the need of more honey during the war emergency. One of these appeared in the 1917 Yearbook of the department and another as Circular No. 87 of the Office of the Secretary. The Bureau of Crop Estimates also contributed a bulletin. (Department Bulletin 685) giving statistics concerning the beekeeping industry which is of help in the same way. As a part of this phase of the work several press notices were prepared and also several papers for publication outside the department.

WINTERING OF BEES.-The investigational phases of this problem have largely been abandoned because of the press of work incident to the war, but practical observations have been continued which serve fully to substantiate the results of former years. The winter of 1917-18 was one of the worst ever recorded, and the loss of bees throughout the country was enormous, yet those colonies which had been prepared in accordance with the recommendations of the bureau

came through the winter strong in bees and were able to get the full crop during the summer. This was therefore a striking demonstration of the validity of the recommendations. The chief activity on this project has been the preparation of material for the use of the field staff on this subject, and these men have carried on a vigorous campaign to prevent future losses like that of last winter. Two additional bulletins (Farmers' Bulletins 1012 and 1014) on practical phases of the wintering problem were prepared.

DISEASES OF BEES.-This project has been continued without interruption, because of its immediate application to beekeeping practices. During the year a bulletin was issued on the control of European foulbrood (Farmers' Bulletin 975), placing for the first time a proper emphasis on the preventive measures to be taken. Another bulletin (Department Bulletin 671) was issued on the methods of laboratory diagnosis of the various diseases of bees and a paper was presented for publication on the so-called Nosema disease of adult bees. The spore-bearing organisms encountered in laboratory diagnosis have been described in a paper in the Journal of Agricultural Research.

The most important part of the work during the year was a series of field experiments on the behavior of European foulbrood in the hive during the time that it is being cleaned out by the bees. This served to throw light on the methods to be used in preventive treatment. The results of this work will be presented soon for publication. This marks a new phase in bee-disease work and promises to yield most helpful results.

WORK ON THE GIPSY MOTH AND BROWN-TAIL MOTH.

During the fiscal year ended June 30, 1918, the area along the outside border of the territory infested by the gipsy moth in the New England States has been thoroughly scouted and additional infested towns have been found, so that the total area in which the insect now occurs is 22,091 square miles, as against 20,211 square miles reported for the previous fiscal year. The increase in area by States was as follows: Maine, 938; New Hampshire, 468; Vermont, 154; Massachusetts, 112; and Connecticut, 307, making a total of 1,880. It will be noted that nearly half of the increase in infested area is in the State of Maine. This is in territory where it is extremely difficult to prevent spread of the small caterpillars, as the warm south and southwest winds tend to carry them each year beyond the infested border. The isolated colonies which have been found in previous years at Bratenahl, Ohio; Mount Kisco, N. Y.; Rutherford, N. J.; Lenox, Stockbridge, and Great Barrington, Mass., and Wallingford, Conn., have been thoroughly scouted, and the surrounding territory has been examined, but no infestation has been found. It is believed that the insect has been exterminated in these colonies.

Territory infested by the brown-tail moth has been reduced from 36,684 square miles in 1917 to 32,990 square miles in 1918.

FIELD-CONTROL WORK.-The control work in the field has been carried on in accordance with arrangements made with the officials in charge of similar work in the States concerned. The policy adopted some years ago of confining our efforts to the scouting

of towns adjoining the infested border and cleaning up the infested areas in two or three tiers of towns inside the border has been continued. Special attention in these towns has been paid to discovering and stamping out infestations on high elevations, as it is necessary to keep such areas free from small caterpillars if serious wind. spread to new territory is to be prevented.

The new sprayers delivered this year are the most powerful that have yet been employed. It has been possible to spray areas on high elevations by locating the truck at the water supply and forcing the spray material in some cases through a mile of 1 inch hose. It has sometimes been necessary to maintain a pump pressure of 1,000 pounds in order to spray high elevations with such long leads of hose, but this has been accomplished satisfactorily and economically, when the loss of time and delay that would be experienced in hauling water such long distances is considered. Furthermore, in many cases hose lines had to be laid through woodland and rough areas where water for spraying could not be hauled.

Spraying operations were conducted in 40 towns during the month of June, as follows: New Hampshire, 22; Massachusetts, 10; Rhode Island, 1; Connecticut, 7.

PRESENT CONDITION OF THE AREA INFESTED BY THE GIPSY MOTH AND THE BROWN-TAIL MOTH.-It was apparent in the fall of 1917 that serious defoliation by the gipsy moth would result in many parts of the infested area. Conditions were particularly bad in the Cape Cod region in Massachusetts, but severe defoliation was looked for to a less extent in limited areas in other parts of the territory.

Climatic conditions during the winter were more severe than had been experienced in New England for many years. Unusually low temperatures were accompanied in many localities by abnormally low humidity. In most sections a heavy snowfall occurred about the 1st of December and in a large part of the territory the ground was covered with snow throughout the winter. This interfered seriously with field work.

The weather became very warm in May, which resulted in caterpillars hatching considerably earlier than during the two or three previous years. Later it was noted that many egg clusters which were fully exposed and which were not protected by snow or débris on the ground failed to hatch. This condition was investigated, and. while in certain sections it seems probable that egg parasites and other factors had brought this result, it is undoubtedly true that the abnormally severe weather during the winter caused a material reduction in the infestation in many localities.

The hatching of egg clusters was more perfect in the Cape Cod section in Massachusetts than in any other part of the territory, and severe defoliation resulted there during the summer. In some parts of the infested region where there was a minimum of snow protection combined with high altitudes the hatching was so deficient that spraying was not attempted. This abnormal condition, while reducing the gipsy moth infestation in some sections, may have had a similar effect in reducing the increase of some of the introduced natural enemies, particularly the egg parasites. Definite information on this phase of the problem can not be secured until later in the season.

EXPERIMENTAL WORK.-During the fall collections were made to determine the status of one of the egg parasites of the gipsy moth, Schedius kuvanae. The results were more satisfactory than heretofore, and it was possible to rear large numbers of this species and to colonize them in infested towns where this species had not been liberated previously. Nearly 2,000,000 specimens were released late in September and October.

In November collections were begun to determine the percentage of parasitism by Anastatus bifasciatus, a single-brooded egg parasite of the gipsy moth. The collections that were made in the regions where this parasite was first liberated gave the most satisfactory percentage of parasitism that had ever been secured. Material was collected for use in colonizing this insect the following spring, but, although the egg clusters were handled in the same manner in the laboratory as heretofore, the number of eggs producing live parasites was considerably less than had been secured in previous years, so that it was possible to liberate this spring less than 2,000,000 speciIt is probable that both of these species will not survive in maximum numbers such severe winter conditions as existed during the past year. Further work later in the season will show how severe the mortality has been.

Parasitism by Compsilura concinnata averaged higher during 1917 than heretofore, and this species was reared from a number of native caterpillars that were not previously known to be hosts of this parasite. Blepharipa scutellata, a tachinid fly which parasitizes large gipsy moth caterpillars and emerges from the pupa, was recovered in much larger numbers in the summer of 1917 than in any other year since its introduction.

A new method has been devised for breeding specimens of Apanteles melanoscelus for colonization, and it has worked out very satisfactorily. This species passes through two generations in the field, the first attacking the small gipsy moth caterpillars and the second destroying the nearly full-grown larvæ.

The Calosoma beetle has been found in limited numbers in many widely separated parts of the infested area, and is more abundant than usual in the sections that are badly infested.

There were no severe infestations by the brown-tail moth this summer, and there has been a corresponding decrease in the abundance of the imported parasites that attack this insect.

The work on diseases affecting the gipsy moth and brown-tail moth has been confined principally to an attempt to determine the abundance of the brown-tail moth fungus in the winter webs, study of the value of an unnamed fungous disease which has been found in eggs of the gipsy moth, and study and liberation of a bacterial disease which originated in Japan and attacks the gipsy moth caterpillars in the field.

Little evidence has been secured during the past two winters that the brown-tail moth fungus winters in any quantity in the webs of this insect. The investigations on the disease found in eggs of the gipsy moth have not progressed far enough to warrant conclusions as to the extent to which this disease is responsible for nonhatch of eggs. The study of the Japanese disease of the gipsy-moth caterpillars