1908.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT No. 73. 203 



of the loss sustained. Thus these undertakings have appeared to mo 

 to have an experimental value rather than an economic one, for we can- 

 not understand this extensive destruction when we consider the ravages 

 caused by these same insects in Europe. 



I have no longer any such feeling, after having seen, hastily, it is 

 true, your country, for I can testify to the enormous development of 

 the pests which you are trying to combat. I am therefore led, my dear 

 Dr. Howard, after having compared our methods with yours, with the 

 confidence of a man especially prepared for this comparison, to tell 

 you of the admiration which I have felt for the scientific and economic 

 results which have already been obtained, and which your willing per- 

 severance will still obtain. These results will be kept up by the work 

 of the intelligent men who are your assistants and whom you have been 

 able to gather around you. 



The examination of the fine experiment station at Saugus, near 

 Boston, and the explanation which you have given me of the fight car- 

 ried on, will greatly modify my views on economic entomology and on 

 the methods to follow to make application of it. The program is up to 

 the present the most vast and the best established, while the station is the 

 largest that I have seen. It is also the only station in the world 

 which permits the serious study of the development of the necessary 

 means for fighting in an efficacious and natural manner an invading 

 pest. It has been necessary to conduct these experiments on a large 

 scale, as you have been able to do, in order to put these agents in a 

 state as near as possible to nature. 



It is necessary, however, in order that your experiments have all their 

 value and all their weight, that they should continue without ceasing 

 during years; and I hope that the State of Massachusetts, as well as 

 the intelligent taxpayers who have consented to the sacrifice of the in- 

 dispensable money for the founding and equipment of the station, will 

 continue to place you in a position to carry on these experiments for 

 that time. 



I shall follow your work in the future with the greatest attention, as 

 I shall better understand your reports; and I shall make known your 

 methods of work, which depend upon the weapons which nature gives 

 you, but which we are not always able to use. Your experiments have 

 a great value for us, for the replanting of forests now going on in 

 Europe is a source of anxiet}*- to the specialists in forest entomology, 

 as we foresee much damage by pests when the extent of forest land, 

 comprising only a few varieties of species, shall become greater and 

 greater. You will have shown us the way, and we can from now hope 

 that your experiments will constitute our surest guide in our future 

 struggle. 



Your enterprise, my dear Dr. Howard, is no longer an American one, 



-it is world- wide, and I hope that the wealthy country of America, 



which has in you the man capable of carrying on this great work to a 



