6 



been characteristic of modern times, and to this must be attributed 

 much of the advancement which, as a nation, we have made in agri- 

 culture, in commerce, and in manufacture. 



Atrriculture, especially, has benefited by this activity. Agricul- 

 tural chemistry, plant pathology, horticulture, bacteriology, ento- 

 mology, and other l)ranches of pure and applied science have each 

 made notable contril)utions. It Avould be to no purpose to discuss the 

 relative importance of the contributious whicli these respective 

 sciences have made and are making to agriculture, for they are as 

 the links in a chain and are closely related in theory and in practice ; 

 but a promiuent ])lace must be conceded to economic entomology, 

 which has, perhaps, been as productive of immediate practical results 

 as any other. Although, in the United States, among the youngest 

 of the sciences coucerned with problems relating to agriculture, the 

 results achieved have ])laced economic entomology in the front rank. 



In explanation of its phenomenal growth it may be said that one 

 of our necessities, as a rapidly developing country, has been the reduc- 

 tion of insect losses to permit the profitable cultivation of many of 

 our important crops. With the constantly increasing population, 

 new regions have been settled and the lands planted in crops, the 

 more or less isolated farms of former days giving way to practically 

 inibroken areas of corn, wheat, cotton, and other crops, often of many 

 miles in extent, thus furnishing ideal conditions for the development 

 and spread of noxious species. Being preeminently a practical peo- 

 ple, we have devised ways and means as the demand has grown, and 

 at the present time the status of economic entomology is quite in 

 keeping with our agricultural conditions. 



The rate and magnitude of our agricultural growth and the conse- 

 quent stimulus to applied entomology may, perhaps, be fairly judged 

 from certain statistics concerning the production of some of our 

 staple crops during the decade covered by the Twelfth Census. The 

 increase in plantings of corn from 1880 to 1809 in the United States 

 was 22,829,159 acres, an increase of 31.7 per cent. In the decade 

 from 1800 to 1900 the area of wheat in the country shows a gain of 

 56.G per cent, or about 10,000.000 acres. The increase in the area of 

 cotton from 1880 to 1800 was 1,009,831 acres, a gain of 20.3 per cent, 

 and it bears on the subject to note that of this total increase Texas, 

 Oklahoma, and Indian Territory furnished 3,637,398 acres, or 88.7 

 per cent. The State and Territories mentioned, it will be remem- 

 Itered, are at the present time suffering more severely from insect 

 depredations on cotton than is any other part of the cotton belt. 



The increase in plantings of deciduous fruits has been scarcely less 

 remarkable. At the present time there are numerous orchards, of 



