February, '10] BRITTON: ENTOMOLOGIST AND FARMER 17 



bent on ' ' making both ends meet. ' ' The most intelligent are usually 

 ready and willing to aid the entomologist by furnishing information 

 about the prevalence of certain insects, and report regularly to him. 

 They take their teams at a busy season and drive him around the 

 neighborhood in order that he may get a better idea of conditions 

 prevailing there. Cooperative experiments are arranged and often 

 carried out faithfully, to the advantage of both owner and experi- 

 menter. 



Occasionally we have experiences similar to that of an experiment 

 station botanist who had conducted a cooperative experiment on the 

 grounds of a truck grower to test the efficiency of sulphur treatment 

 to prevent celery leaf blight. The treated plants promised well, and 

 one day he visited the place to make final notes in the field before the 

 crop was harvested. Before reaching the field he saw the owner, and, 

 asking him about the celery, was disappointed to learn that it had just 

 been dug. ' ' Oh, that is too bad, ' ' said he. ' ' Well, I don 't think so, ' ' 

 remarked the owner, with a laugh ; ' ' I got two dollars a crate for it. ' ' 



But most farmers are willing to do the fair thing when they know 

 that the entomologist is working for a small salary to learn truths 

 which may benefit them. I have known them to greatly inconvenience 

 themselves in order to give him ample facilities for conducting experi- 

 ments, the results of which were of no particular benefit to them, or 

 at least not more so than to other farmers. 



Of course it must be expected that the farmer will be more inter- 

 ested in the practical results of the experiments than he will be in any 

 scientific value which they may possess, yet many farmers have a full 

 realization of the necessity of a careful study of an organism to deter- 

 mine its life history as a means to an end — practical methods for its 

 control. 



We all find it difficult at times to answer the questions put to us by 

 some of the growers, and their shrewdness is often amusing. I have 

 known a correspondent to send insect specimens to his own experiment 

 station for identification and at the same time send duplicate lots to 

 a similar institution in another state and to the Bureau of Entomology 

 at Washington. If the replies all coincide, presumably he gets the 

 right name for the insect. 



A further consideration of the matter only makes it more evident 

 that the official entomologist in order to be efficient in his helpful- 

 ness to the farmer should do something more than write long-range 

 prescriptions. He can go to the field occasionally, view the conditions, 

 and will then probably prescribe differently and more to the purpose. 

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