How shall we proceed to the discovery of new facts '\ Is it sufficient 

 to go about our duties with eyes wide open and minds alert, making 

 discoveries at random here and there which have no close relation one 

 to another? To make and chronicle an}^ new discovery is well, but 

 the difference between one who is simply a good observer and the 

 scientific worker in applied entomology will be manifest in the fact 

 that the latter will so plan and systematize his work that the facts 

 observed and the conclusions reached will have an intimate relation 

 one to the other and will form a basis for economic operations. While 

 I believe the work in applied entomology is on a higher level in this 

 respect than ever before, still there is room for improvement. 



And then each should specially strive for those facts the possession 

 of which will enable us to generalize and lay down working princi- 

 ples, or, as put b}' Professor Osborn in his address, "we should not 

 neglect such underlying problems as shall perfect the fundamental 

 knowledge of our science.'' One discovers that the male of a codling 

 moth possesses a black stripe or dash on the underside of the fore 

 wing which makes it possible to separate it from the other sex. It is 

 a fact well worth recording and of importance to those who are work- 

 ing with the insect, but it has no underlying principle that enables 

 one to draw important conclusions. To discover that the moth begins 

 laying her eggs on the fruit about a week after the bloom has fallen; 

 that the &gg is about ten days in hatching; that the young larva 

 usuall}" enters the calyx of the fruit and there begins to eat into it; 

 that the calyx of the apple closes within a few days after the petals 

 fall, is to discover facts closeh^ related to each other and which enable 

 us to intelligently plan for the destruction of the insect. 



In more than one presidential address we have been urged to put 

 special stress upon life-history work. It is here particularly that we 

 need new discoveries. Facts in life histories of insects must furnish 

 a large proportion of the necessary basis for successful economic work. 

 They are to the science of applied entomology what the laws of g-rav- 

 itation, of chemical affinity, and of the indestructibilit}' of matter are 

 to one who is to be an analytic chemist. 



An examination of recent bulletins from experiment stations by 

 the side of those that were published when this Association was organ- 

 ized will show that more and better life-history work is being done. 

 Let us continue to improve in this important line of study and let us 

 hear freely from all suggestions of new or better methods. 



We should endeavor to choose those problems that are of pecul- 

 iar interest, each in his particular State, or any important problem 

 which others for some reason have shunned. Good examples of what 

 1 would urge are: The work being done by Professor Hopkins on the 

 life histories of wood-boring beetles; the work of Dr. Forbes and 

 others on insect diseases; the work of Professor Osborn upon the 



