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opportunity may be afforded to those students who are specially 

 engaged in the practical application of the science of meeting peri- 

 odically to discuss new discoveries and to exchange experiences as 

 to the best methods of work. The value of such an association 

 cannot, I believe, be overestimated. The recognition which, during 

 the past decade, has been accorded to Entomology as a branch of 

 Practical Agriculture, makes it important that as little time as pos- 

 sible should be wasted upon unnecessary reduplication of experi- 

 ments, and also on the other hand that successful methods of com- 

 bating injurious insects should be made known as widely and quickly 

 as possible. 



A small number of the States of the Union had employed their 

 State entomologists for some years past, and Canada her's since 

 1884. All of these officers had striven hard to do good and useful 

 work in the vast field which lay before them. Recently, however, 

 a great impulse has been given to practical science in all lines by the 

 very important " Hatch Experiment Station Act," which was passed 

 by Congress in 1888. This Act provides that a sum of $15,000 

 should be annually set aside for the purpose of carrying on scientific 

 agricultural experiments in every State of the Union. In conse- 

 quence of this Act there have already been organized Experimental 

 Stations, twenty-seven of which have entomologists on their staffs, 

 and these officers have already issued much valuable practical in- 

 formation in the shape of bulletins to the farmers of their respective 

 States. The operation of injurious insects are such an important 

 factor in the success or failure of all crops grown, and the recogni- 

 tion of that fact is now becoming so wide-spread amongst the edu- 

 cated agricultural classes, that before long it is beyond question that 

 the directors of the other Stations will see the advisability of adding 

 an entomologist to their staff. The result of this will be that we 

 shall have in North America a large number of men specially 

 trained for the work they have undertaken, with sufficient time and 

 means at their disposal for carrying out any experiments which may 

 be necessary. Surely, under such circumstances important results 

 must follow. They all have the same object in view — the discovery, 

 as soon as possible, of practical — that is, efficient, simple and cheap 

 — remedies for the various injurious insects which destroy produce. 

 The work of all these students will, of course, have to be carried on 

 independently, in widely separated localities, and a fact which will 

 give special value to their labors will be, that similar experiments 

 will be carried out carefully and scientifically under differing circum- 

 stances and with varying climatic conditions. 



