80 B. C. ENTOMOLOGICAL PROCEEDINGS, 1912. 



This heritage, I regret to say, is not properly appreciated by the 

 people who live amongst these mountains. There is too great a tendency 

 to value everything by the standard of dollars and cents. 



When seated on some rocky spur above the timber-line we study 

 and survey nature in her primitive grandeur and fail to see the work of 

 man anywhere ; then for a short time we lose sight of the almighty 

 dollar and feel that it is good to be alive. 



Before closing I should like to call the attention of this meeting to 

 the advisability of encouraging the study of systematic Entomology which 

 appears in this Province to be on the decrease. Even our own Society 

 which a few years ago was composed almost entirely of systematic men 

 has given place largely to economic men. It is well for us to remember 

 that the foundation of Entomology is systematic and without this work 

 the economic man is quite unable to cope with our insect pests. Indeed, 

 if you ask the latter a question off hand he can seldom answer you 

 until he has referred to the work of some man who has taken up this 

 study purely for the love of it. 



The systematic Entomologist has been treated more or less in all 

 ages as a joke, and even some of our leading economic Entomologists 

 in Canada today refer to him as an "amiable old gentleman who runs 

 around with a net and a bottle catching butterflies." Remarks like this 

 are very humorous and will always cause a laugh in a mixed audience, 

 but this "amiable old gentleman" has been working away catching butter- 

 flies, and incidentally many other insects, for many generations, without 

 any pecuniary reward, and the result of his labours is Entomology as 

 we know it today. 



Any of us who are profiting by his researches would be showing 

 very poor taste in trying to belittle his work. If we had men like this 

 scattered over our Province at the present time we should have no 

 difficulty in determining the distribution of any insect. 



The late Dr. Fletcher thoroughly appreciated this fact, and gave 

 all possible encouragement to young entomologists and collectors. It is 

 only now, after several years, without his kind counsel and assistance 

 that we appreciate the irreparable loss we have sustained by his untimely 

 death. 



A. H. Bush. 



