48 



spreading east and west; also that both species were i)resent, but 

 that tlie injury had not been so severe as was anticipated. 



Mr. Sanderson reported that Crioceris aspanuji liad, in his experi- 

 ence, injured new beds of asparagus. 



Mr. Green reported that he had found tliis species 40 miles west of 

 Chicago. 



Mr. Gillette next read a paper entitled — 



WHAT CREDIT SHALL WE GIVE? 



By C. P. Gillette, Fort Collins, Colo. 



What credits shall we give to those who assist in carrying on our 

 investigations? Probabl}^ no one has been lojjg engaged in scientific 

 research who has not heard of other workers who do not give fair 

 credit to those who assist them. Undoubtedly there have been occa- 

 sions where such complaints were well founded, but it is also probable 

 that heads of departments have often been seriously misrepresented 

 by ambitious assistants who overestimate the importance of their work 

 and are too eager to see their names in j)rint. 



I am of the opinion that there is much lack of uniformity also on 

 the part of scientific workers in the matter of giving credit. Probably 

 it is impossible to lay down definitely rules to be closely followed in 

 all cases, but it seems to the writer that there are certain general prin- 

 ciples that could be agreed upon and that would lead to af airly uni- 

 form practice if followed out. Perhaps it is not discreet to present a 

 toj)ic that is likely to meet with so wide a difference of opinion as this 

 one, but I have no complaints to be adjusted, and I have frequently 

 heard of the unfairness of other scientific workers in giving too little 

 credit, and I believe there is no body of men more likely to agree upon 

 a broad and just plan for the giving of credits than this body of eco- 

 nomic entomologists. I am bold, therefore, to i)resent this brief paj)er 

 in the hope that it may help to bring about a better understanding 

 and more universal good feeling between scientific workers and their 

 assistants, and I wish it thoroughly understood that the paper is not 

 written in criticism of anyone, and I have no one in mind as an 

 offender in these matters. 



What credit should be given in a particular case depends upon 

 many conditions. In the first place I should make two very distinct 

 classes of the assistance that might be rendered, viz, unskilled and 

 skilled. Whether the man who plows the ground and plants the seed 

 and cultivates the crop deserves any special credit or not when the 

 final results of the experiment are published to the world, depends 

 upon whether or not he has, on account of special training and ability, 

 added materially to the value of the results obtained. 



First, let us consider what credits should, in justice, be given to 

 unskilled help. Here again we shall have to make a twofold division 



