WHOLE VOL. APPLIED ENTOMOLOGY HOWARD 5I 



He came to America at the age of 30, and settled in Illinois where 

 he farmed for 13 years, afterwards moving to Rock Island where he 

 carried on a successful lumber business for seven years more. He 

 then retired and devoted the rest of his life to entomology. He wrote 

 many articles for the agricultural newspapers, and at the same time 

 published a numl)er of admirable papers in the Proceedings of the 

 Boston Society of Natural History and the Transactions of the Ameri- 

 can Entomological Society. These papers were of a very high class 

 scientifically. They were especially marked by scientific men both in 

 America and in Europe. 



But it is as an economic entomologist that we must consider him ; 

 and in this relation we must devote some lines to a little magazine 

 which was started by the American Entomological Society in Phila- 

 delphia, called The Practical Entomologist. 



This journal seems to have been ignored by modern entomologists, 

 but its influence was very great. At first it was distributed gratis, 

 8,000 copies of each number being sent out. Later a subscription 

 price of 50 cents annually was charged. At the end of two years its 

 publication was abandoned. The editors first chosen were A. R. 

 Grote, E. T. Cresson, and J. W. McAllister, and Walsh was added 

 to this staff after the publication of the first numbers. All through 

 the succeeding numbers appear articles written by him. His ability 

 as an incisive writer, his breadth of knowledge, and his power to 

 prophesy accurately the future of economic entomology were ex- 

 traordinary. Again and again he pointed out what the States and the 

 general Government should do against the certainty that insect ravages 

 would increase. He appreciated the fact that American farmers were 

 planting their crops in such a way as to facilitate the multiplication of 

 insects. He argued strenuously for the introduction of the foreign 

 parasites and natural enemies of imported pests, and his witty and 

 vigorous invective against charlatanistic suggestions as to remedies 

 make capital reading today. 



All through his longer articles one finds indicated the methods of 

 study adopted by Riley, and there can be no doubt whatever that the 

 latter looked upon Walsh as his mentor and model and that very 

 much of the sound character of his Missouri Reports is due to his 

 association with Walsh. 



The entomologist of today who does not occasionally spend an hour 

 or so with The Practical Entomologist or with The American Ento- 

 mologist subsequently founded and edited by Walsh and Riley and 

 who is not familiar with Walsh's sole report as Acting State Ento- 

 mologist of Illinois loses a great deal. 



