FIGHTING THE INSECTS 



The President, having in hand the annual reports of all of his 

 Cabinet officers, then proceeded during the month of November 

 to Vi^rite his own annual message to Congress, which of course 

 was read on the convening of Congress on the first Monday in 

 December. 



Although when we think of the great growth of the Service in 

 little more than thirty years, brought about by public necessity, 

 by increased financial means, and above all by good things 

 accomplished, this growth seems very rapid, still at the same 

 time it did not seem so rapid to us who were in the middle 

 of things. I, for example, did not fully appreciate it. It was 

 really a busy and exciting life, and it was thoroughly congenial. 

 I did not have time to stop and attempt to think broadly over 

 the whole field. Important things were pressing all the time. 

 But there was growing constantly an added respect for the 

 potentialities of insect life, and an appreciation of the fact not 

 only that we were doing necessary work but that it was pioneer 

 work and that we needed more help. We needed more en- 

 tomologists, trained in the latest methods, and also we needed 

 the appreciative assistance of workers trained in many other 

 lines. We began to see that the plant physiologists, the farm 

 planners (agronomists), the agricultural engineers, the men 

 trained in chemistry and in physics, could be of the greatest 

 assistance, if they could be brought to see it. And so we began 

 eventually and at first very guardedly a campaign of public in- 

 struction. 



We wished above all things to avoid the accusation that we 

 were trying to scare people unnecessarily. Unfortunately, how- 

 ever, we did not entirely escape this accusation. The ideas that 

 we put forth proved to be popular with certain newspaper men 

 and certain space writers. Some of these people, although trained 

 writers, did not appreciate the importance of exact scientific 



[162] 



