— 5— 



Such an opportunity for showing the value of Science has never 

 before occurred, and it is incumbent upon the men who accept these 

 positions to recognize also the responsibility of their offices. I 

 would suggest that not only is extreme care necessary in the carry- 

 ing out of our experiments as official entomologists, but also great 

 thought must be given to the best means of publishing and making 

 known results. Above all things is it necessary to gain the confi- 

 dence of those for whom we write. The editors of agricultural 

 papers are frequently enquiring for articles upon Economic Ento- 

 mology, but they always say they must be simply expressed, or 

 they are useless to them because their readers will not read them. 

 Even amongst highly educated, and even cultivated people, you 

 find many to whom the very word "science" is a bug-bear, and 

 much more is this the case with the large class of agriculturists. A 

 class which, although it does contain many men of education and 

 culture, of course consists mainly of men who have not had the 

 time nor opportunity to avail themselves of educational advantages. 

 They are, however, as a class, men who spend their lives away from 

 the distractions, largely frivolous, of city life, and, as a consequence, 

 develop a faculty for observation, thought and practical application, 

 which would indeed be a boon to many an aspirant to scientific 

 fame. Writings upon agricultural entomology should be, I think, 

 couched in the simplest language possible ; the articles should be 

 short and concise, without too much detail of the life-history of the 

 insects discussed. Prominence should be given to the nature of the 

 attack, so that it may be recognized ; the essential points of the 

 life-history of the insect, so that its habits may be understood and 

 missing links filled in ; and above all the best remedy, under exist- 

 ing local circumstance ; and lastly a statement of such information 

 with regard to the pest as may be lacking. 



During a somewhat extensive intercourse with farmers I have 

 always found them anxious to learn anything about injurious insects 

 and the means of combating them. As a general thinj^- they are 

 willing to devote both time and labor to any experiments suggested 

 if there is only a chance of success, but they complain that frequently 

 writings which are professedly written expressly for them are unin- 

 telligible, that there is too much detail concerning the life-history, 

 or that even under remedies there is frequently a long string given 

 without comment, some of which are good and some useless. Now 

 this is, to a certain extent, true, and is due, I think, to two causes — 

 either, as stated in "Insect Life," that "Economic Entomology 

 has heretofore greatly suffered by the writings and pretensions ot 



