PREFACE 



In January, 1928, I wrote the following lines as a preface to the 

 history I was aljout to begin : 



After studying insects nearly all my life and after having worked as an 

 economic entomologist in the service of the Government for more than fifty 

 years, I find that in an effortless way I have accumulated a lot of information 

 which did not fit into anything I have published but which younger workers 

 are constantly telling me ought to be put into print. There are hundreds of ento- 

 mologists today where there was one fifty years ago, and in the soon-coming years 

 there will be thousands, or I miss my guess. Why then should I drop off the 

 stage before I have recorded certain experiences and impressions which, con- 

 nected up with an historical account of the development of applied entomology, 

 may be of much interest to many of the present younger workers as well as to 

 thousands who are surely coming? I have no satisfactory answer to this question, 

 and so I shall begin to write the pages that will follow. 



It is now something more than two years since the above was 

 written, and, while I have been deeply interested in gathering together 

 what follows, I am not satisfied with it. It is bound to be criticised 

 It is not a history of the strict, modern, documented type. But it 

 will be useful and I think that most entomologists will thank the 

 Smithsonian Institution for publishing it. 



L. O. Howard 

 May 29, 1930. 



