February, '16] HERRICK: TRAINING ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGISTS 21 



progress can be rather easily obtained. The course of its development 

 has been an interesting one and in many respects an inspiring one. 

 The older workers, especially, have been men with whose lives we may 

 very profitably become acquainted. I would earnestly urge every 

 young man intending to follow applied entomology as a profession 

 to become intimately acquainted with the lives of such men as Harris, 

 Fitch, LeBaron, Walsh, Riley, Lintner, Fletcher and Saunders. I 

 am convinced that a knowledge of the development of one's favorite 

 science will act as. an incentive and inspiration to fresh and extended 

 endeavor. It will also aid in developing a worthy pride in adding 

 something to what has already been done and will give a clearer view 

 of what remains to be accomphshed. 



Lest I be misunderstood and lest some may fear that the speaker 

 is overemphasizing the theoretical to the neglect of the practical side 

 of an entomologist's training, allow me to say that elsewhere I have 

 set down in detail what, it seems to me, would constitute an ideal 

 course of study as preparation for applied entomological work. In 

 that discussion I have admitted and emphasized the desirability of a 

 certain amount of practical field work and have also noted its kind, 

 its extent, and the place it might well occupy in such a course of prep- 

 aration. The length of that discussion and the extent of what I 

 desired to say in a more abstract way has precluded the possibility 

 of including it here. I would like to say, however, in this connection, 

 that there is a tendency among young men, especially undergraduates, 

 to study only those things that they think are going to be of actual 

 %ise to them in their future work. So many young men say to me that 

 they do not want to take this or that course because it will be of no 

 use to them in their profession as an economic entomologist. 



It is probably true that the mere knowledge of the processes involved 

 in the solution of an algebraic equation in quadratics, or the mere 

 knowledge of the laws governing falHng bodies or the Latin subjunc- 

 tive may never be of actual practical use in checking the ravages of 

 an insect pest. We must not expect to use everything we learn, 

 neither ought we to learn only those things we expect to he directly useful. 

 We do not study certain subjects with the expectation of using the 

 formulas and equations on the field of battle with the codling moth. 

 It is certainly true that we shall forget most of the facts we learn in 

 college concerning mathematics, physics, Latin, chemistry, and kin- 

 dred subjects; but not one of us will ever lose the broadness of view 

 and culture of mind gained in acquiring this knowledge and not one 

 of us will ever lose the benefit of mind training received from mastering 

 these subjects. The significant fact, the fact that counts, is that the 



