Vol. xxii] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS IOI 



every state in the union an efficient entomological staff com- 

 posed of trained men ; and at Washington there is a corps 

 connected with the Bureau of Entomology comprising six 

 hundred and twenty-three individuals, of whom one hundred 

 and thirty-one are trained entomologists. In certain states, 

 notably California, there are even county and district entomol- 

 ogists. It is safe to say that in 1873 there were spent by 

 states and the general government for entomological work 

 not to exceed ten thousand dollars a year. On the other hand, 

 the amount spent by states and the general government for 

 this work at the present time much exceeds one million dollars 

 a year. As late as 1877, immediately following the disas- 

 trous invasions of the Rocky Mountain locust into Colorado, 

 Kansas and western Missouri, and which brought about a loss 

 certainly equaling two hundred millions of dollars and reduc- 

 ed a large population to the verge of starvation, it was with 

 the utmost difficulty that Riley and his colleagues were able 

 to secure from congress an appropriation of eighteen thousand 

 dollars to start the United States Entomological Commission 

 on its work of investigation of the causes of the outbreak and 

 the remedies to be used in case of future invasions. A con- 

 ference of the governors of the various western states and 

 territories asked congress for a commission of five experts 

 and an appropriation of twenty-five thousand dollars, but 

 congress scaled this down to three experts and an appropria- 

 tion of eighteen thousand dollars. Within very recent years, 

 however, congress has appropriated almost without discussion 

 such large sums as two hundred and fifty thousand dollars for 

 the investigation of the cotton boll weevil and three hundred 

 thousand dollars for the investigation of the gipsy moth and 

 the brown-tail moth, while New Jersey has spent more than 

 a hundred thousand dollars on the mosquito work, and Mass- 

 achusetts alone more than a million on the gipsy moth, the lat- 

 ter sum covering the work of a number of years. It is safe, 

 in fact, to estimate that there are in the neighborhood of five 

 hundred scientifically trained entomologists holding official 

 positions in this country at the present time, as against five 

 thirty-seven years ago. 



