REPORT. 



To the Legislature of the State of Neio York: 



The Entomologist, ia accordance with the requirement of the act 

 establishing the office of State Entomologist, would respectfully pre- 

 sent the following report : — 



In assuming the duties with which he is specially charged — '* the 

 study of insects injurious to agriculture and of methods for controlling 

 and preventing their depredations,"— he has done so in earnest devo- 

 tion to his department of study — with a sense of responsibility aris- 

 ing from the magnitude of the field of his investigations and its con- 

 sequent demands — a conviction of the great importance of such 

 studies — a determination tliat, to the extent of his ability, they shall 

 be made to promote the intiTOsts of the State, and the hope that they 

 Avill contribute to the ol)ligations under which other States and 

 countries have already been placed to the State of New York, by her 

 valuable contributions to applied science. 



IMPORTANCE OF ENTOMOLOGICAL STUDY. 



It should not be necessary in this enlightened age, marked by so 

 great advance in every department of science, to urge the importance 

 of the study of the Insect world. A century ago, when Entomology 

 and many of the allied sciences were in their infancy, it was popular, 

 and perhaps excusable, to ridicule the study, which frequently ex- 

 tended no further than the gratification afforded by the possession of a 

 cabinet of insects properly labeled and systematically arranged. Those 

 devoted to the pursuit were looked upon as occupied with trifles. 

 Such views are still held at the present day by those who arc ignorant 

 of the grea-t change that a century has wrought, and of the practical 

 purposes which this preliminary work of collecting, naming, and de- 

 scribing have meantime been made to serve. The study of insects has 



