REPORT OF ASSISTANT SECRETARY. 47 



Fanner, then the leading agricultnral paper of the West. Besides a close applica. 

 tion to the d\ities of his position as reporter, delineator, and editor of the entomo- 

 logical department of this paper, he devoted his time and energies to the study of 

 botany and entomology. His industry and versatility soon made him not only 

 popular with his associates upon the paper, but gave him a widespread reputation 

 as a writer upon natural history, es])ecially on his specialty of economic entomology, 

 the importance of which he soon made apparent."' 



His adventurous teinperament led him to enlist as a private in the One hundred 

 and thirfy-fourth Illinois ^'olunteers, in which he served for several months during 

 the civil war, in Kentucky and Tennessee. 



Before entering the army he had made the acquaintance of the man whom he 

 joined in 1868 in establishing the American Entomologist. This friend, who was 

 senior editor until his death, was Dr. Benjamin D. Walsh, State Entomologist of Illi- 

 nois, and it was Walsh to whom Riley always alluded as his master and the man 

 to whom he Avas most indebted for his early training and inspiration. Mr. Walsh 

 was a graduate of the University of Cambridge, in the class with Darwin, a man of 

 weight and scholarly attainments and a most careful and i)aiustaking investigator. 

 During the lew years of his residence in Illinois he had done much to develop the 

 interest in economic entomology, which resulted in the establishment of the jiosition 

 of State Entomologist of Missouri in 1868, which was the beginning of Riley's 

 public labors. 



An important outgrowth of Riley's personal activity' in connection with his ofBcial 

 work was the formation of the Riley collection of insects, npou which he began 

 immediately after he left the army in 1864, and which at the end of twenty-five years 

 included over 20,000 species and over 115,000 mounted specimens, besides much 

 other material. Tlie collection is in many respects nnijue, especially so because of 

 the complete manner in which the life-history of numerous individual species is 

 represented. It is the legitimate outgrowth and complement of Riley's investiga- 

 tions, and is a voucher for the accuracy and fullness of his jjcrsonal work in ento- 

 mology. This collection he gave in 1882, without condition, to th(^ National Museum, 

 at that time without a collection of insects. His jiurpose in doing this was to place 

 in the Museum a worthy nucleus, and to be instrumental in the formation of a col- 

 lecti(m which would be worthy of the nation. He was ap])ointed at once honorary 

 curator of the department of insects in the Museum, and gave much attention to the 

 department, Avhich thereafter made rapid advan<'es. 



It was as an economic entomidogist that Riley was most widely famed. In this 

 field he was eminent in two respects — in administration as well as in his direct 

 contributions to the science of practical entomcdogy, and to the art which is its 

 outgrowth. 



As an administrator, he was associated with three prominent undertakings: The 

 entomological work of the State of Missouri, the United States Entomological Com- 

 mission, and the establishment of the Division of Entonu)logy of the Department of 

 Agriculture. 



He held the position of entomologist to the State of Missouri for nearly ten years, 

 entering upon this work at the age of 23. 



The United States Entomological Commission was in existence for five years, Riley 

 having been its chief from the beginning. 



"We all remember," said the Pacific Rural Press in 1887, "the sad experiences 

 which our Western States and Territories passed through from 1873 to 1877, from 

 locust or grasshopper ravages, which resulted in destitution and precipitated a 

 financial crisis. These ravages seiiously afiected the western portion of his own 

 State, and Professor Riley took hold of the problem with that originality and vigor 

 which have characterized all of his work. His last three reports to the State con- 

 tain the first positive and accurate knowledge on the subject that has been published. 



' Colman's Rural World. St. Louis. May 12, 1892. 



