February, '11] COMSTOCK: TEACHIXG METHODS 55 



briefly outline the methods with which the entomological staff of this 

 institution is trying to meet these conditions. In other institutions 

 other conditions doubtless exist, which can be better met by other 

 methods. 



The students of entomology in Cornell University can be grouped 

 into four classes; and the special needs of each of these classes must 

 be considered separately in order to reach the best results in our teach- 

 ing. We have what are termed "Special Students," students who take 

 a short course of study in general agriculture extending over only one 

 or two years; regular students in a four-year course who take ento- 

 mology only as part of a course in arts and sciences or in general agri- 

 culture; regular students in a four-year course who are fitting them- 

 selves for entomological work; and graduate students. 



First, special students. The special or short-course students can 

 devote so httle time to any of the several subjects that they study 

 during the one or two years of their stay in college, that we are able to 

 give them only two periods of entomology per week for a half year. 

 In this brief course given to a class consisting largely of students who 

 have no background of biological knowledge, we can only hope to give 

 some information that will be of immediate practical use to them in 

 their growing of crops or their care of stock, when they return to their 

 farms a few months later. 



The course consists of very elementary discussions of the structure 

 and metamorphoses of insects, of accounts of the more important 

 insect pests, with suggestions as to the best methods of combating 

 them, of accounts of beneficial insects, and of field excursions to 

 observe, so far as practicable, the insects discussed. The course is illus- 

 trated by many sets of specimens, put up in the Riker mounts, by 

 cUagrams, and by a liberal use of the stereoptican and the projection 

 microscope. 



Owing to the fact that this course is given during the months of 

 October, November, December, and January, the field-work part of 

 it is of necessity limited. We expect that in the near future there will 

 be a summer session of our College of Agriculture, when an elemen- 

 tary course can be given in which a more desirable balance between 

 lectures and field-work can be obtained. 



This course for the special students differs so fundamentally from 

 what we consider desirable as constituting the entomological part of a 

 course leading to an academic degree, that regular four-year students 

 are not permitted to elect it. We look upon it as merely extension 

 work given at the college. 



Second, regular students not specializing in entomology. The 

 class of students whose needs are to be considered next are those regular 



