THE STORY OF AN ENTOMOLOGIST 



all the time. A serious enemy to growing rice in the Orient 

 is the Rice Stem Borer {Chilo oryzceellns). These Seattle in- 

 spectors showed me a lot of cheap toys that were coming in 

 from Japan and that were intended for the Woolworth Ten 

 Cent Stores. They were addressed to many parts of the United 

 States and were all packed in rice straw. On opening some 

 of these straws they found the larvae of this destructive pest 

 alive and healthy. What was to be done? Rice straw was 

 probably the only cheap packing that the Japanese had. The 

 articles in which it was packed were so cheap that the expense 

 of fumigation or other treatment was not to be considered. 

 And yet they were to go almost everywhere in our country. 

 Rice culture has extended enormously in the United States, 

 possibly principally upland rice in east Texas and in the Sacra- 

 mento Valley in California. The demand for rice has increased, 

 and the sea islands on the coast of South Carolina and Georgia 

 can no longer supply it. Moreover, the Rice Borer will probably 

 attack other large-stemmed graminaceous plants. What a prob- 

 lem! I don't know how the Plant Quarantine Service has solved 

 it. Possibly this new pest has already got a foothold in the 

 States, but if so, I have not heard that it has been discovered. 

 Great credit not only for the operations of the Board for 

 many years, but for the passage of the law, belongs to Dr. 

 Marlatt; but I like to think of what I did in the early days 

 to help bring about a popular sentiment. The whole history, 

 I think, comes quite properly into the story of an entomologist. 



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