332 ENTOMOLOGY 



The official economic entomologist uses every means to reach the 

 public for whose benefit he works. Bulletins, circulars and reports, 

 embodying most serviceable information, are distributed freely where 

 they will do the most good, and timely advice is disseminated through 

 newspapers and agricultural journals. An immense amount of corre- 

 spondence is carried on with individual seekers for help, and personal 

 influence is exerted in visits to infested localities and by addresses before 

 agricultural meetings. Special emergencies often tax every resource 

 of the official entomologist, especially if he is hampered by inadequate 

 legislative provision for his work. Too often the public, disregarding 

 the prophetic voice of the expert, refuses to " close the door until the 

 horse is stolen." 



Aside from these emergencies, such as outbreaks of the Rocky Moun- 

 tain locust, chinch bug, Hessian fly, San Jose scale and others, the State 

 or Experiment Station entomologist has his hands full in any State of 

 agricultural importance; in fact, can scarcely discharge his duties prop- 

 erly without the aid of a corps of competent assistants. 



This chapter would be incomplete without some mention of the 

 progress of economic entomology in this country, especially since America 

 is pre-eminently the home of the science. The history of the science is 

 largely the history of the State and Government entomologists, for the 

 following account of whose work we are indebted chiefly to the writings 

 of Dr. Howard, to which the reader is referred for additional details as 

 well as for a comprehensive review of the status of economic entomology 

 in foreign countries. 



Massachusetts. Dr. Thaddeus W. Harris, though preceded as a 

 writer upon economic entomology by William D. Peck, was our pioneer 

 official entomologist official simply in the sense that his classic volume 

 was prepared and published at the expense of the state of Massachusetts, 

 first (1841) as a "Report" and later as a "Treatise." The splendid 

 Flint edition (1862), entitled "A Treatise on Some of the Insects In- 

 jurious to Vegetation," is still "the vade mecum of the working ento- 

 mologist who resides in the northeastern section of the country." 



Dr. Alpheus S. Packard gave the state three short but useful reports 

 from 1871 to 1873. 



As entomologist to the Hatch Experiment Station of the Massachu- 

 setts Agricultural College, Prof. Charles H. Fernald has issued important 

 bulletins upon injurious insects, and has published in collaboration with 

 Edward H. Forbush a notable volume upon the gypsy moth. For the 

 suppression of this pest, which threatened to exterminate vegetation 



