February, '19] BALL: ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY 25 



emerged, at first faltering and feeble, but rapidly gaining in strength, 

 until her wings have expanded and she has risen and circled out over 

 the fields of this world to be. The moth cannot fold her wings and 

 return to the caterpillar stage on the single plant; she is now of the air 

 and of life and must go on. Neither can our nation return to her 

 isolation. She has taken her place in the lists as the champion of 

 democrac}' — the establishment of the rights of the individual and the 

 brotherhood of man, and as such, she must and should remain. 



Our society has grown with the nation's growth, and has contributed 

 to it. We have expanded as she has extended her domain and we 

 must be prepared to go on with her, and take our place with her in the 

 new order of things. If our society is to be true to its traditions, she 

 must remain in an advanced position of leadeiship. This will require 

 a broadening of our scope and interest, a strengthening of forces 

 and ideals, a stronger administrative organization and a carefully 

 chosen leadership to meet the requirements of our new and greater 

 responsibility. 



The Economic Entomologists are to be congratulated on the fact 

 that they represent the oldest society in America organized for the 

 promotion of an economic phase of agriculture. Thirty years ago, 

 when this association was formed, agriculture was an art with slightly 

 scientific ambitions, in a nation that was groping and struggling to 

 find herself. 



Thanks to the energj^, enthusiasm and almost prophetic vision of 

 the old warriors, Economic Entomology became crystallized and def- 

 initely established on scientific foundations long before our sister 

 societies in Plant Pathology'-, Animal Nutrition, Agronomy, and Hor- 

 ticultural Science were even possible. We were extremely fortunate in 

 the original band of warriors, crusaders after truth, whose self-sacrifice 

 and devotion made this society possible. They were, for the most part, 

 men whose love of nature had drawn them to the work and held them 

 there despite discouragement, ridicule and lack of support. Truly they 

 founded well, nnd on that foundation this association has grown in 

 prominence and power, in numbers and influence, as well as in mate- 

 rial prosperity, ever keeping pace with the progress of the nation. 



The spread of the San Jos6 scale and the development of the nursery 

 inspection laws in its wake, brought the entomologist into prominence, 

 gave him financial support and opened the way for an extremely rapid 

 development. No other of our sister societies has ever received such 

 an impetus. 



We wonder sometimes, however, when we compare the work of this 

 society with its closest relative, the Phytojiathologists. whether the 

 wealth and power, l)rought to us by the apparent opportunity of the 



