WHOLE VOL. APPLIED ENTOMOLOGY HOWARD 83 



appointed June 3 as the fasting and prayer date. I never knew 

 whether this story was true; but on May 31 Professor Riley gave a 

 lecture before the Academy of Natural Sciences of St. Louis, to 

 which citizens generally were invited. In this lecture he distinctly 

 stated that in the course of the next two weeks the insects would 

 leave the State. As this lecture must have been reported with large 

 headlines in St. Louis newspapers, it was probably not necessary for 

 the Governor to consult Professor Riley personally. 



When in the spring of 1877 the Commission was organized, Riley, 

 Packard, and Thomas divided the territory between them, and each 

 started on a journey of investigation. In the course of these journeys 

 they were called ujx)n frequently to speak to agricultural audiences 

 and were able to bring relief to the burdened minds and to restore 

 hope to the agricultural population which had virtually lost hope. 



As has been shown elsewhere, Riley was appointed Entomologist to 

 the United States Department of Agriculture in June, 1878. The labors 

 of the Entomological Commission were by no means finished, and 

 indeed the first report had not yet been published. As has also been 

 shown, Riley remained in the Department for nine months only, 

 resigning in March, 1879. Immediately after resigning, he opened 

 offices in his Washington house (northwest corner of Thirteenth and 

 R Streets), took E. A. Schwarz with him, and also employed W. LI. 

 Patton. This office remained the headquarters of the Commission 

 during the two years following. The ten-thousand-dollar appropria- 

 tion for the third year (1879) expired on June 30, 1880. 



The Reports published by the Commission are of permanent value. 

 They covered, as has been shown, a rather wide range of subjects 

 in entomology, and contained a number of papers of much value, the 

 authors of which would possibly have had difficulty in placing them 

 elsewhere. The Reports were widely distributed and may be found 

 in numerous scientific libraries in Europe today. They exercised 

 a marked efifect upon the esteem in which American economic ento- 

 mology was beginning to be held around the world. ^ 



Entomology Under the Federal Government, 1878-1894 



We have elsewhere seen how Townend Glover worked for many 

 years single-handed not only as Entomologist to the Federal Govern- 



' As an evidence of this: Many years later (I think in 1908) I was introduced 

 personally to Dr. I.. Sambon, then of the London School of Tropica! Medicine. 

 He acknowledged the introduction with the greatest cordiality, saying : " Of 

 course I know of your great work against the migratory locust." He got the 

 man wrong, but he was right about the work ! 



