52 JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY [Vol. 7 



logical survey, with the special object in view of giving a careful and 

 intelligent consideration of the injurious insects within its confines. 

 This was one of several lines of efforts undertaken by the commissioners 

 of the Zoological and Botanical Survey of this state, which received its 

 official instructions in 1837. The purpose of this movement was to 

 "collect^ accurate information of the state and condition of its agri- 

 culture and every subject connected with it, point out the means of 

 improvement, and make a detailed report thereof, with as much exact- 

 ness as circumstance will admit. " In the division of duties Dr. Thad- 

 deus Harris, as one of the commissioners of the survey, assumed 

 responsibiUty for the entomological project. Differing from the usual 

 conceptions of the work of a natural history survey, his aim in this 

 effort as expressed by himself was to fill the want of a work, combining 

 ''scientific and practical details on the natural history of our noxious 

 insects," which would be at least interesting and useful to the great 

 body of the people. His contribution to the work of the survey was 

 his remarkable treatise on "Insects Injurious to Vegetation." Be- 

 cause of his service in this undertaking, Harris has been referred to as 

 the first official economic entomologist in this country. However, 

 aside from the above achievement, he carried on his entomological 

 activities independent of official connections. A naturalist at heart, 

 he pursued his studies, for which he was remarkably gifted by nature 

 and intellectual training, from a sense of love of the work itself. 



As in Massachusetts, legislative support for entomology in New York 

 has its inception in the Natural History Survey, which under the in- 

 fluence of public interest was begun in 1837, and has practically con- 

 tinued to the present time. One of the motives back of this effort was 

 the advancement of agriculture, as this industry and mining were 

 considered the two subjects to be most benefited by the proposed pro- 

 ject. For the work to be undertaken in behalf of agriculture Dr. 

 Ebenezer Emmons^ was recommended by the State Agricultural 

 Society, and he was thereupon appointed by Governor Seward, at the 

 same time retaining his title as State Geologist. It was understood at 

 the outset that his reports should be completed in one j^ear. However, 

 Emmons was not prepared to publish his contributions for several 

 years after the undertaking was begun, and the first of his reports did 

 not. appear until 1846. Five volumes were eventually complied by 

 him under the title "Agriculture" in the "Natural History of New 

 York," and of these, one volume dated July 25, 1854, is devoted to 

 insects injurious to agriculture. The author, a geologist by profession, 

 states that a part of his labor was to collect materials in the field, and 



1 A. C. True, U. S. Dept. of Agr. Yearbook, 1899, p. 162. 



s Letter from Dr. John M. Clarke, N. Y. State Museum, Aug. 19, 1913. 



