THE NECESSITY OF A STATE ENTO- 

 MOLOGIST. 



[From the Legislative Journal, House Proceedings, Friday, Jan. 24, 1873.] 



Hon. H. A. Shaw, of Eaton county, presented a memorial for a State Ento- 

 mologist, signed by the officers of the several State Pomological and Agricult- 

 ural Societies of the State. The following is the memorial : 

 To the Honorable the Senate and House of Representatives : 



The undersigned, memorialists, would respectfully ask of your honorable 

 bodies the earnest consideration of the great need and importance to our State 

 of a State Entomologist. 



We hardly need, sirs, to call your attention to the very patent fact that 

 agriculture and horticulture stand chief among our industrial pursuits, and 

 form the very basis of the prosperity of our great commonwealth. Equally 

 well do you understand that daring the last quarter of a century the average 

 annual production of many of our great staples have fallen otf from 25 to 50 

 per cent. Now, what are the causes of this decline ? Why has the yield of 

 wheat fallen off 50 per cent during the last twenty years? Why have many 

 fields of corn utterly failed ? Why the unprecedented high price of potatoes, 

 regulated, as you know, by the law of supply and demand ? Why do we begin 

 to despair of raising radishes ? Why are our onions rapidly falling oif ? Why 

 have apples and peaches fallen ofl" from 15 to 50 per cent, and plams often 

 100 per cent, during the last decade ? Why are we losing thousands of dol- 

 lars' worth of fruit trees annually ? 



Now, sirs, while we would not have you under-estimate, as among the causes 

 of these unpleasant facts, improper tillage, starvation of soils, or less propi- 

 tious climate consequent upon the unveuial destruction of our forests; yet we 

 desire to invite your attention to what has been gathered by our practical 

 experience, and is generally unappreciated ; that a chief cause lies in the 

 wholesale devastation by our insect pests. 



Allow us to call your attention to some alarming statistics bearing upon 

 this subject : 



Dr. A. S. Packard, noted for his caution as a naturalist, makes, in his first 

 report as Entomologist of Massachusetts, the alarming statement "that from 

 noxious animals and fungus growths, we, as a nation, lose $500,000,000 annu- 

 ally." The late Dr. B. D. Walsh, than whom there were none better qualified 

 to judge correctly, estimated our annual loss from insects alone at $300,000,000. 

 According to Dr. Fitch, State Entomologist of New York, that great State 

 lost, in 1854, from the ruin to the wheat crop by the Hessian fly alone, the 

 sum of $15,000,000. 



Dr. Shimer estimates the loss to Illinois in 1864, by the destruction of the 



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