FIGHTING THE INSECTS 



also pleased with it, and some years later introduced it in some- 

 what different words as a footnote in his famous "Butterfly 

 Book." 



Thus to Dr. Holland belongs the credit for this clever remark. 

 In it he anticipated Maeterlinck, who wrote of insects as "our 

 rivals here on earth and perhaps our successors." 



I ended my fifty-three and a half years' service under Uncle 

 Sam June 30, 1931. I had retired from the office of Chief of the 

 Bureau October i, 1927, on account of the age limit fixed by 

 Congress. But a welcome provision of the retirement law per- 

 mitted me to stay on in the service with the title Principal 

 Entomologist for two additional terms of two years each, which 

 brought me to my seventy-fourth birthday. 



The whole period of my official career was full of interest, 

 and I led a thoroughly happy life. I was hardly conscious that 

 I was working, since I was doing the things that I most wanted 

 to do. I saw a great service built up, and as head of this service 

 for more than thirty-three years many honors came to me. Not 

 that I deserved them any more than a number of my associates. 

 They were bestowed on me merely because I happened to be 

 Chief. There were scholastic honors, for example, and I have 

 quite a collection of doctorate diplomas. In fact, my dear friend 

 Jablonowski of Budapest, who is very fond of his joke, begins his 

 letters sometimes "My dear friend, Doctor of everything except 

 Music and Divinity." Then, too, I have been made an honorary 

 member of a large number of foreign societies and have had 

 some medals and things of that kind. Possibly the most widely 

 known of these was the Capper Award for 1931. This was the 

 second time the Award had been made. In 1929 it was given 

 to my old friend, Dr. S. M. Babcock of the University of Wis- 

 consin, largely for his invention of the cream separator. The 



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