37 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [February, 



DEPARTMENT OF EGONOMIg ENTOMOLOGY. 



Edited by Prof. JOHN B. SMITH, Sc. D., New Brunswick, N. J. 



Papers for this department are solicited. They should be sent to the editor, 

 Prof. John B. Smith, Sc.D., New Brunswick, N. J. 



The Association of Economic Entomologists. Bulletin No. 20, new se- 

 ries, of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, Division of Entomology, 

 contains the proceedings of the nth annual meeting of this body, at 

 Columbus, Ohio, August 18 and 19, 1899. It is a pamphlet of 112 pages, 

 most of them well worth reading, and some of them worthy of careful 

 study. 



By all odds the most comprehensive and valuable paper is the presi- 

 dential address by C. L. Marlatt, entitled "The Laisser-Faire Philosophy 

 Applied to the Insect Problem." I do not often quarrel with a title, but 

 I consider this a somewhat unfortunate one, since, from the start, it tends 

 to lead to a misunderstanding of the address. 



Mr. Marlatt considers the subject from much broader, more philosophic 

 grounds than has been done before, and shows conclusively that against 

 certain natural movements we are powerless, whether we enact State or 

 national laws His example is the San Jose or pernicious scale, and, after 

 rehearsing something of the efforts made to stem the tide of this insect's 

 spread, he asks : " Does anyone think for a moment, and at all seriously, 

 that the San Jose Scale is to be exterminated, and that its dissemination 

 is to be prevented, whatever may be the legislation, and whatever quar- 

 antine steps may be adopted or exterminative measures put in operation ?" 



No one who has had any real experience in field work, and has ever 

 lifted himself above the narrow little horizon bounded by spraying ma- 

 chines, dusters, poisons or fumigating outfits, and has viewed the pro- 

 cesses before him with any real understanding, can fail to agree with Mr. 

 Marlatt's conclusions. The processes of nature are slow, but they are as 

 inevitable and irresistible as our " /aws" are futile in opposition. 



Mr. Marlatt explains why insects introduced into a new environment 

 are often so much more injurious than natives, or than the strangers them- 

 selves were in their native home, and he points out that all these are mere 

 local conditions that have little effect upon the balance of nature in the 

 long run. 



Now here is a chance for a misunderstanding and for the suggestion 

 that the economic entomologist is a useless incumbrance, for if matters 

 even themselves up in the long run they might as well be left to them- 

 selves altogether. But Mr. Marlatt's essay does not authorize this view. 

 While we cannot stop the natural spread of the pernicious scale, now that 

 it has secured a foothold, there is no reason why we should not prevent 



