FIGHTING THE INSECTS 



charming young man who announced that he was Colonel 

 Davis' son. He told me that his father was looking forward 

 with great pleasure to my visit. Now, I am very fond of talking 

 and as a wise, precautionary measure I said to the young man, 

 "Is your father a good listener.?" His face broke into a broad 

 and irresistible smile, and he replied, "Doctor, tell my father that 

 you asked me that question and that I refused to answer!" 



Journeys around the world are so common nowadays that 

 there is practically no feeling of adventure connected with them. 

 Nevertheless, to me this journey was a perpetual delight. We 

 went from New York down through the Panama Canal, and 

 I spent rather more than three weeks with Colonel Davis in 

 Honolulu. He proved to be a delightful man, with a fine mind 

 and broad experience. It was a joy to meet my old colleagues 

 in Honolulu and to see the results of their wonderful recent 

 work. At the time of my visit, it seemed that the great pineapple 

 industry would be saved from enormous damage by a virus 

 carried by the pineapple mealy bug, thanks to a discovery 

 that had just been made by a former assistant in the Bureau 

 of Entomology, Dr. Walter C. Carter. 



Going on from Honolulu, I, met entomologists at almost 

 every stop: at Kobe, at Shanghai, at Hongkong, at Manila and 

 at Colombo. It was a memorable journey. 



In my last four years at Washington I had written and pub- 

 lished two books. The first was a "History of Applied Ento- 

 mology — More or Less Anecdotal," which the Smithsonian was 

 good enough to bring out in 1930. It was a great pleasure to 

 do this book, and the entomologists of the world have received 

 it very cordially. The second was "The Insect Menace," pub- 

 lished by the Century Company in 1931. My friend, Professor 

 E. L. Bouvier of the Institut de France, has published a favorable 

 review of this book and has arranged for its publication in the 



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