

FIGHTING THE INSECTS 



but also about the use of the aeroplane — a method which was 

 proving efJective both in the cotton fields and in forest insect 

 operations. 



I think that it was in August, 1923, that the International 

 Congress of Agriculture was held in Paris. As I was over 

 there at the time, I naturally attended it, registering as an 

 official delegate from the United States Department of Agri- 

 culture. Several other Americans who had been with me at 

 Wageningen the month before also attended this conference. 



The closing banquet was held in one of the great halls of 

 the Hotel Continental. The Marquis de Vogue presided with 

 great ability, tact and charm, and many of the speeches were 

 admirable. I had been notified that I would be expected to 

 say something, and therefore I had written out a short speech. 

 I had protested to the Secretary of the Academic d'Agriculture, 

 the late Henri Sagnier, that I would have to make my remarks 

 in English, but he insisted that I should speak in French, so 

 I asked Paul Marchal to transcribe what I had written, turning 

 it into his beautiful French, and this I memorized and delivered. 

 The reason I tell this is so that I may add that I sent a copy 

 of my remarks to Washington as a part of my official report. 

 I received a personal letter from the then Secretary of Agricul- 

 ture, Henry Wallace, who was a good deal of a wag. He thanked 

 me especially for sending it in French, and said that I probably 

 thought that this would puzzle him, but he assured me that 

 he was quite as familiar with the French language as he was 

 with his native Sanskrit. 



I will speak a little later of the Pan-Pacific Union, a remark- 

 able organization, originating in Honolulu and having its 

 headquarters there. 



[210] 



