330 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST 



that the magazine be readable by the greatest possil)lc number 

 of subscribers. He tries to balance his subjects, so that there 

 are no superabundance dealing with any one order. Most amateurs 

 are interested in the Lepidoptera, but papers on this order con- 

 taining new material are \ery scarce. The greatest number of 

 students are collectors of the Coleoptera, but it takes a year to 

 prepare a synoptic table of beetles which the reader disposes of 

 in ten minutes. The additions to the sum total of human knowl- 

 edge are more in the lesser known orders, Diptera, Hymenoptcra 

 and the minor ones. Of all these there are few amateurs to read. 

 So, in the effort to please as many as possible, one succeeds in 

 pleasing almost no one. 



On this particular editor's desk there have lain letters from well 

 over a thousand entomologists or collectors of insects. Less than 

 one per cent, contain praise of some article. Fifteen per cent, 

 come from professional entomologists, most of them demurring 

 against further sul)scription. The leading authority on grass- 

 hoppers does not suljscribe, because the few grasshopper papers 

 are sent to him anyway by the friendly authors, and he does 

 not wish to burden his bookshelves with matter concerning 

 crickets or reaches. The economic entomologists are too intent 

 on their own useful observation of some pest to read anything 

 whatever, much less identify a species. They send to W'ashington 

 to have that done. Eighty per cent, of the letters on the editor's 

 desk are from amateurs. There are many of them, if only there 

 was a way to reach and talk with them. In 1823 a list of butter- 

 fly collectors in Great Britain contained l?S,000 names. Here in 

 North America a popular, rather expensive, highly illustrated 

 butterfly book has reached a sale of something like UO.OOO copies. 

 A few per cent, of th^se readers have come in contact with some 

 entomological magazine. The burden of their speech is pretty 

 much the same throughout. The Canadian Entomologist, the 

 Brooklyn Bulletin, and all the r^st, are too far above their heads, 

 too technical, too hard to understand, containing too little to 

 help them identify the species they have caught. 



One cannot read without having learned the alphabet. How 

 manv of our collectors have more than a single book to teach 



