February, '16] HERRICK: TRAINING ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGISTS 19 



The economic entomologist is inevitably drifting more or less into 

 the role of a leader in his community or state. The influence of his 

 presence among the progressive farmers of his territory is bound to 

 make itself felt. Leadership demands a true understanding of real, 

 effective service to humanity and he who serves his fellowmen best 

 and most lastingly, must be a man of wide, clear vision, liberal ideas, 

 and large sympathies. 



We are gratified with this growing position of the economic entomolo- 

 gist in the affairs of the people; but we must reahze that it brings 

 added and grave responsibilities which must be lived up to and met 

 in exactly the same catholic spirit in which they come to us. To 

 meet these duties in a large, sane, and efficient way, a man should 

 possess sound judgment and wide knowledge of men and their affairs. 

 We have been dehghted and inspired by the fact that one of our older 

 members has been recently honored as the leading citizen of his state. 

 Not alone because of his purely entomological work but because his 

 work was broad enough and sane enough to fit into the lives and activ- 

 ities of the people. It seems to me that the economic entomologist 

 of the future must acquire a wide and thorough knowledge of the 

 history and development of his country, of the characteristics, ideals, 

 and aims of his people and of the economic forces governing their 

 welfare. 



Again, there are other phases of the more recent developments of 

 economic entomology that emphasize the need of a thorough and lib- 

 eral preparation. For example, the work in so-called medical ento- 

 mology is calling for the highest type of broadly trained men. The 

 discoveries of the direct relations of insects to man have opened up a 

 tremendously vital field of work for the economic entomologist. 

 The problems in this field that will present themselves in the future- 

 are sure to be complex and intricate and to be bound up closely with 

 interrelated problems that will demand broad knowledge, trained 

 judgment, profound insight, and the ability for the closest scrutiny 

 and discrimination. No one who has not been trained to close, 

 extended application, and who has not had the imagination developed, 

 need expect to solve successfully the problems in this field. 



There is another development or tendency arising in the botanical- 

 zoological field that in order to be met and stemmed successfully will 

 demand thoroughly trained men and a high type of work. I refer 

 to the tendency to submerge economic entomology in the field of 

 phytopathology. Doctor Howard has already pointed out the ab- 

 surdity of this movement and the need of resisting it. One of the most 

 successful means of preventing this tendency from being realized is 

 for the economic entomologist to perform his work in such a broad, 

 fundamental manner that it will be differentiated as a clear and dis- 



