74 JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY [Vol. 4 



largely in the future. This will make it more and more difficult to 

 completely cover the important phases of entomological work in one 

 place, and will, I think, further require a greater amount of migration 

 of students who wish to get the latest and best of methods in any par- 

 ticular branch. Such a migration of students, already somewhat in 

 vogue, is, it seems to me, a very desirable feature both for securing a 

 broadening effect upon the student from working with different indi- 

 viduals, and for the stimulating effect it has upon the instructors 

 themselves. 



With regard to the teaching of entomology in the lower grades of 

 school work, there seems to me to be a distinct problem and one that 

 is deserving of most careful attention. Under the name of Nature 

 Study and other terms considerable of this work is already in progress 

 or is being urged with greater or less force. It is a subject which inter- 

 ests the economic entomologist particularly, because the education of 

 the general public in some of the fundamentals of the subject would 

 permit him to make his results known with much greater facility. I 

 have heretofore, in an address before this society in Boston twelve 

 years ago, indicated the belief that it would be unfortunate to force 

 such work into the lower grades of school work before we have teachers 

 sufiEiciently trained to give the work with a fair degree of success. It 

 appears to me that to force such work in with incompetent or unin- 

 terested teachers would simply delay the longer the practical adoption 

 of such work, and therefore be an unfortunate feature for entomological 

 science. It seems to me necessary that accurate knowledge in such 

 lines should be carried from the higher grades of school work down- 

 ward, and that as soon as a fairly sufficient body of teachers is avail- 

 able, the extension of such work into the lower grades will be practic- 

 able. This period should be much nearer to us at the present time 

 than it was a decade ago, as there has been a very extensive growth of 

 interest in such work, and a large body of teachers more or less trained 

 for the handling of such a subject. It is still a fact, however, that 

 many of the teachers attempting such w^ork have more enthusiasm 

 than knowledge, and are no assistance in the real extension of interest. 

 These conditions will undoubtedly improve rapidly as the subject 

 becomes more widely understood and the demand for such informa- 

 tion increases from the outside. There is so much at present being 

 presented in the general magazines, in agricultural literature, and in 

 the form of accessory school work, that it can be only a question of 

 time that greater efficiency will follow. 



President Sanderson: Professor Bruner will present the closing 

 paper. 



