FIGHTING THE INSECTS 



fruit-growers how to handle the Thrips, the danger vanished 

 and a great industry took on a new lease of life. 



And there is a second psychological point connected with 

 such field visits. As I have shown in an earlier chapter, it was 

 the routine of the Agricultural Committee of the House (then 

 in charge of the preparation of the Agricultural Appropriation 

 Bill — this work is now being done by the Committee on Ap- 

 propriations) to call the bureau chiefs of the department in early 

 December to explain the need for estimates that had been sent 

 in. This is the psychological point: if I could explain to the 

 Committee that a month or two months before I had visited 

 the field laboratory engaged in a certain investigation and had 

 seen the whole situation, the Committee at once realized that I 

 knew what I was talking about, and, since I am an honest- 

 looking man, they accepted my word. But if I had been able to 

 state only that So-and-so had told me of the need, there might 

 have been some doubt in the minds of the Committee. 



So I took many of these field trips, down through the South 

 to study Boll Weevil conditions and laboratories; into Florida 

 to visit the laboratory where citrus pests were being studied; out 

 to California, up to Washington, east to Idaho where as early 

 as 1898 C. B. Simpson was working on the Codling Moth; 

 further east to the Bitter Root Valley, where we were working 

 on the Spotted Fever Tick; down to Kansas, where E. G. Kelly 

 and afterwards J. R. Horton were engaged with the grain insect 

 problems; further east to Indiana, to visit J. J. Davis (who later 

 left the service and is now a professor in Purdue University), 

 and then out into New England to watch the intensive work 

 that went on for many years against the Gipsy Moth and the 

 Brown-tail Moth. 



This doesn't sound very adventurous or at all dramatic, for 

 none of us ever got into what are called "the wilds" (except 



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