ii8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



wood, field, and stream, that many thought him demented, while 

 others declared that he destroyed more grain than his scientific inves- 

 tigations were worth. 



At its organization he became identified with the Washington 

 County Agricultural Society, and soon began to give attention to the 

 public need by various contributions to the local journals on economic 

 entomology. In 1845 he published in Dr. Emmons's " American Quar- 

 terly Journal of Agriculture and Science " an article of thirteen pages 

 on " Insects of the genus Cecidomyia," in which he described a new 

 species of willow gall-fly, illustrating it by. figures of the insect in 

 different stages of growth, and of the excrescence it produces on the 

 willow. This was his first formal entomological essay. Six months 

 later he sent another of thirty pages to the same journal on " The Wheat- 

 Midge," and, in 1846, a third of sixty-three pages on "The Hessian 

 Fly." This was afterward revised and republished in the " Transac- 

 tions of the New York State Agricultural Society." In 1847 he pub- 

 lished a valuable paper on " Winter Insects," of which he was the first 

 to write specifically ; and also in the " Transactions " gave an account 

 of the currant-worm and its moth. This paper, beautifully illustrated 

 with colored engravings, was widely copied in foreign scientific jour- 

 nals, and brought its author prominently into notice as a scientific 

 investigator. At this period Dr. Fitch was employed for a time col- 

 lecting and naming the insects of the State of New York, for the State 

 Cabinet of Natural History. In the Report of the Regents of the 

 University for 1851 he gave a descriptive catalogue of the insects of 

 New York of the order Homoptera^ in which he named and described 

 a number of new species. 



In 1854 Dr. Fitch was appointed New York State Entomologist, 

 and held the position seventeen years, during which period he devoted 

 himself exclusively and most assiduously to scientific woi-k. The little 

 ofilce a few yards from his residence became his workshop, and night 

 and day sent forth light to the world. So close was the watch he 

 kept at the hatching-time of the various larvae collected, that for a 

 week together he would catch his sleep in an arm-chair, waking at 

 intervals to note the wonderful changes taking place in the insect-life 

 before him. At such times, his meals, and an extra hour after tea 

 to read the news, was all the recreation he allowed himself, and even 

 then his pocket-net was always within reach, to capture any unwary 

 moth or curious beetle whose love of light attracted it to the room. 

 Dr. Fitch was a most devout Christian, and reading the Scriptures and 

 prayer with his family was a daily habit of his life. But even when 

 thus engaged it was not safe for an attractive insect to come in his 

 way. A daughter, the one to whom he was indebted for many of the 

 beautiful drawings which illustrate his writings, relates that on one 

 such occasion when he had the Bible in his hands, and was about to 

 begin reading, a moth of peculiar appearance alighted on the book 



