182 JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY [Vol. 6 



its characteristic appearances would have led in our discussions, and 

 remedial and preventive measures would have followed thereupon as 

 immediately as practicable, the insect itself being brought in, if at 

 all, in a strictly subordinate way, as an aid to the recognition and 

 classification of the injury, and as a guide to the selection of an eco- 

 nomic method." 



In the discussion of teaching methods of entomology, at the Minne- 

 apolis meeting of this association, this same point was brought out. 

 That teaching which reasoned from the injury to the insect was more 

 effective than with that method reversed, was the meat of the discus- 

 sion. In other words the matter was better considered from effect to 

 cause, rather than from cause to effect, as Prof. J. G. Sanders then 

 put it. 



Where an economic group of insects has been concerned, the con- 

 sideration of the whole subject according to the injury to the plant 

 often has been used. Saunder's "Insects Injurious to Fruits" and 

 Forbes monograph of corn insects (18th and 23d reports) will remain 

 classic examples of this kind. Insects are there considered as attacking 

 leaves, or branches, or roots, etc., as the case may be, the order of their 

 consideration depending on an economic, rather than on a systematic 

 relationship. 



Certainly it is the injury to a crop that the farmer notices before 

 anything else. Many a time he does not see the msect which has 

 caused an injury, sometimes he sees the wrong insect, but he does see 

 the damage. Then it is the damage of an insect to a plant that is the 

 logical thing with which to start an entomological article of economic 

 importance. Now it seems to me that, having attracted the reader by a 

 description of the injury, something with which he may be more or less 

 acquainted, his attention may l)e held for a few succeeding paragraphs, 

 in which the insect may be very briefly described, and the life history 

 in its essential details given. At this point only the bare essentials 

 need be given, just enough to give a clear idea, nothing more. The 

 weak points in the life history, Avhere the insect may be reached by 

 control measures, should be brought out quite distinctly at this point. 

 This part of the text, also, is the place for illustrations of injury, and 

 the insect as well, which tell more than pages of text. 



Now the control measures may be discussed, for that is the point we 

 have been trying to reach all the while. This is likely to be more in 

 detail, if much experimental work has been done, but there is no 

 reason why it cannot be put in popular language. In concluding the 

 discussion of the control measures definite steps may be advised for 

 the insect. This completes the popular portion of the bulletin, and so 

 far the reader may go without encountering a single technical word, 



