prksident's address. 15 



individual attention of the farmer and gardener to his ti'ees and 

 fields in the old-world lands, was an intense cultivation that 

 could not be profitably undertaken by the man in the new country. 

 Therefore the new conditions gave plant-eating insects a much 

 better chance to multiply, and they soon became a serious charge 

 upon the crops. 



It can be well understood, therefore, how the big farms and 

 orchards became breeding grounds for injurious insects, which it 

 was necessary to check. Though several of the American States 

 had appointed State entomologists to do special work, such men 

 as Dr. Harris, of Massachusetts, in 1831, Dr. Packard, in 1852, 

 Dr. Asa Fitch, of the New York Agricultural Society, in 1854, 

 it was not until 1854 that Mr. Townend Glover was appointed 

 Federal Entomologist. It might, however, be claimed that the real 

 foundation of the present Bureau of Entomology at Washington 

 was the outcome of the appointment of the Entomological Commis- 

 sion, in 1877, by the Federal Government. This Commission was 

 appointed to report upon the damage caused by the invasion of 

 the immense swarms of Rocky Mountain locusts that started in 

 1873, and increased in such numbers and intensity, during the 

 following three years, that no grass crops or even foliage of trees 

 could be found over an area of 2,000,000 squai'e miles, including 

 some of the richest lands in the United States. Their report 

 was voluminous but practical. The estimated damage caused by 

 these locusts was 14,000,000 dollars: subscription lists were 

 opened in all the towns of the United States to enable the ruined 

 farmers to obtain seed for the next harvest. The three ento- 

 mologists appointed were C. V. Riley, A. S. Packard, and Cyrus 

 Thomas; Riley, from his work on this Commission, received the 

 appointment of Federal Entomologist on Glover's retirement in 

 the following year; and with Professor Comstock, the veteran 

 chief of the Zoological Division of the Cornell University at the 

 present time, laid the foundation of the Federal Bureau of 

 Entomology as it now stands. 



Riley had won his spurs as State Entomologist in Missouri, 

 and, between 1868 and 1877, issued his famous annual reports, 

 which are known to all economic workers. Dr. L. C. Howard, 



