36 JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY [Vol. 5 



the simplest truths pubUshed in the earUer part of our state work. I 

 think we are frequently not explicit enough with farmers; they are 

 suspicious of new remedies, slow to adopt them, and some still have 

 the attitude of holding the professor's results in contempt. Here is 

 where the work of the Agricultural Extension Division can be and is 

 effective. 



The value of a personal interview also cannot be overestimated; 

 personal contact counts for much more than letters, which latter, even 

 though carefully worded, are sometimes misleading, and may possibly 

 convey an impression entirely at variance with the thought of the 

 entomologist. This impression might be easily righted in a conver- 

 sation with a farmer, or in a general talk before a body of farmers. 

 Then, too, a trip to see a farmer, or a body of men interested in agri- 

 culture, is to them a compliment and a source of gratification. It 

 cannot be denied that our constituents are hard to win over to our 

 views. As a rule orchardists are progressive and glad to make use of 

 the entomologist's results; or, is it that they realize a lower price is 

 paid for fruit exhibiting any blemish caused by an insect? Many 

 lumber men, possibly, are quick to take advantage of facts disclosed 

 by our work, but we venture to say that not a very large proportion of 

 the latter follow the scientific methods suggested by Hopkins, intended 

 to control the devastations caused by various insects. Some market 

 gardeners are alive to the value of modern methods; some invent good 

 methods of control themselves, but the general farmer, as stated 

 above, is hard to win over; it is with the younger generation, the 

 coming farmers, that our work is the most effective. The importance 

 of persona) contact with the farmer is so great that if the chief himself 

 cannot give time to it, we believe there should be at all times during the 

 growing season, men in the field who represent the chief. These men 

 should be carefully chosen. They should be efficient, honest, well 

 grounded in their work, and last, but not least, mature, and good 

 mixers. Do not send out boy assistants among your constituents. 



Some farmers, particularly the foreign farmers, are suspicious and 

 fatalistic, both of which qualifications are obstacles to our work. 

 They are also sometimes suspicious of friendly overtures, or, on the 

 other hand, expect the state to go to all the expense and trouble of 

 freeing their fields of vermin. 



Manifestly the same general axioms above cited, would apply to 

 our relations with stock raisers, housekeepers, nurserymen and others, 

 though the inspection of domestic and imported nursery stock plays 

 such a prominent part in our work that it calls for and will receive, 

 in this address, a chapter by itself. 



