2 10 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Wednesday Afternoon Session. 



The Secretary presented the following paper upon 



WHAT ILLINOIS HAS DONE FOR ENTOMOLOGY. 

 BY CLARENCE M. WEED, OF CHAMPAIGN, ILL. 



The great importance of a study of the life histories and habits of the hordes of 

 injurious insects which are so constantly lessening the productions of American 

 agriculture, and of discovering and applying practical and comprehensive 

 remedial measures by which this great annual loss may in part, at least, be 

 saved, is becoming more and more impressed upon the minds of intelli- 

 gent soil tillers everywhere. And though as in the days of Say, Fitch and 

 Harris, one too often meets with farmers who are ready to sneer and scoff at 

 the entomologist and his results, they are almost invariably men whose opinion 

 is not worth the asking, who know nothing of that which they are talking 

 about and have no more right to condemn off hand the actions of a student of 

 insect life than a jury would have to render a verdict in a murder trial before 

 hearing any evidence pro or con. 



No other of these United States has done so much for the progress of eco- 

 nomic entomology as Illinois, and having been so fortunate within the past year 

 as to see and learn something of the results and of the methods by which they 

 have been reached I take pleasure in acceding to Secretary Garfield's request 

 to write something about what Illinois has done for entomology. 



In that portion of this paper treating of the history of the office of State 

 entomologist I shall quote freely, from the only summary of the facts with 

 which I have met, that of Prof. S. A. Forbes, in the introduction to the 

 appendix to the fourteenth report of the State entomologist of Illinois. Of the 

 establishment of the office Prof. F. there writes: 



"The office of State entomologist of Illinois was established by an act of the 

 legislature, approved and in force March 9, 1867, by which the Governor was 

 authorized to appoint 'by and with the consent of the Senate some competent 

 scientific person as State entomologist, who shall hold the appointment for 

 two years and until his successor shall be appointed.' This officer was 

 required to investigate the entomology of Illinois, and particularly to study 

 ' the history of the insects injurious to the products of the horticulturists and 

 argriculturists of the State ; ' and was directed to 'collect and preserve a cabinet 

 of insects to be deposited at the Illinois Industrial University.' He was re- 

 quired to 'prepare a report of his researches and discoveries in entomology for 

 publication by the State annually;' and his salary was fixed at the sum of 

 $2,000 per annum." 



The first appointee under this law was Benjamin Dane Walsh, of Rock Island, 

 a man with whom many who listen to this paper have been acquainted, either 

 personally or through his numerous articles in the agricultural press, and 

 whose untimely death on the 12th of November, 1869, from the effects of in- 

 juries received in a railway accident, was much lamented. Mr. Walsh issued 

 but one report which was made to the State Horticultural Society and published 

 as an appendix to the transactions of that society for 1867. 



