February, '21] xewell: organization in economic entomology 45 



in our introduction, to the unnecessary duplication of work by these 

 agencies and to the manner in which problems, essentiall}^ local in charac- 

 ter, are som.etimes handled by the federal Bureau of Entomology to the 

 embarrassment or impediment of the state workers. The rapid expan- 

 sion of the Department of Agriculture has many times resulted in the 

 Department taking up problems, for the common good, in states where 

 the legislatures either could not or would not provide facilities for doing 

 so. There has also been an insistent demand that the federal govern- 

 ment assrmie the role of patron to the end that state legislatures may 

 "conserve" the state funds. 



The Bureau of Entomology should function mainly in a regulatory 

 and advisors^ capacit}-, should be the "central supply station" for 

 entomological knowledge and council, a clearing house for experimental 

 results and an institution to cope with those problems which involve 

 activities clearly extending beyond the borders of any single state. 

 For the Bureau to establish field laboratories for the study of problems 

 largely or entirely local in character is to draw attention of the public 

 away from the field and activities of the state institutions, to the 

 detriment of the latter. With the inception of a federal laboratory in 

 any locality the growers come to expect greater things from the federal 

 undertaking than can possibly be realized. The publicity attending 

 the establishment and maintenance of such field laboratories or stations 

 creates in the minds of legislators an inclination to let the government 

 solve local problems and they accordingly make this the excuse for not 

 properly supporting their own state institutions. The speaker has in 

 mind the case of a field laboratory established by the Bureau for the 

 study of tobacco insects. The. tobacco growers of the State in which 

 this field station is located have come to look upon this station as their 

 only source of information on insects affecting tobacco. They do not 

 apply to their state entomologist for help or information or even to their 

 State Experiment Station or Extension Service for assistance along any 

 line. Consequently they have no interest in their state institutions, 

 their representatives in the legislature have none and oppose appropria- 

 tions for agricultural work of all kinds and the entire state, including the 

 tobacco growers themselves, suffers the consequences. 



It is no more logical for the Bureau to establish and conduct field 

 stations, exclusively under its own management and direction, for the 

 study of a certain insect or the insect enemies of a certain crop, than it 

 would be for the Department of Agriculture to establishment agricul- 

 tural colleges in competition with tho.se now in operation by the several 

 states, appoint their faculties and direct their operations exclusively 

 from Washington. We do not wish to be understood as contending 



