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Cresson be secured ? He would gladly give them gratuitously, but this 

 he is unable to do. For several years past they were secured by a salary 

 from Dr. Wilson, and most certainly others can do what Dr. Wilson 

 did. Who will step forward and fill his place ? Dr. Wilson succeeded 

 Maclure in founding permanent institutions, and in making Philadel- 

 phia the first scientific city in America ; who will succeed Dr. Wilson ? 

 The Entomological Society needs an income above what it already has 

 of $2,500 a year. This is for two objects, to sustain the periodical 

 Proceedings and to keep an individual constantly employed in describ- 

 ing new species, editing the periodicals, conducting the correspondence 

 of the Society, arranging the collections, and generally superintending 

 the Society's afiairs. Therefore it has been resolved to attempt the 

 collection of $40,000. in addition to Dr. Wilson's donations, as a per- 

 manent fund for these two objects. It is hoped that men of wealth 

 may be found who will contribute that sum. Surely all Philadelphia 

 can and will do what one man did so many years alone. 



The Society has just begun the publication of a new monthly periodi- 

 cal, called The Practical Entomologist. This is to be self-sup- 

 porting, and therefore not a burden on the Society's funds. Its object 

 is to procure and to diffuse information in an agreeable popular form 

 on Insects which are destructive or beneficial to vegetation in the 

 United States. This cannot be done by the Proceedings, which is 

 addressed exclusively to the scientific men of the whole world. A 

 large amount of knowledge has already been accumulated on this 

 subject, and the design now is to bring two classes of men, the scien- 

 tific and the practical, in closer communication. The complaint has 

 often been made that scientific men are not sufiiciently practical, and 

 that practical men are not sufficiently scientific. This complaint the 

 Society will aid to remove. It is astonishing what ravages various in- 

 sect tribes commit every year in the United States. In the State of 

 New York alone it has been said that they destroyed 115,000,000 worth 

 of wheat in a single year ! However this may be, it is certain that 

 that amount of pecuniary loss in a single year is not uncommon in the 

 wheat crop of the whole United States. It is hard to estimate the 

 annual damages to the fruit crops, the peaches, the plums, the apples, 

 the pears, the cherries. In the South We hear of almost fabulous 

 amounts of losses by the ball wjrm, the army worm, and other insect 

 destroyers in the cotton. To flower and vegetable gardens and to shade 

 trees, the mischiefs from insect enemies are not small. It is believed 

 that general attention will be secured from the community to our new 



