55 



sects lived upon tbe particular farm crop (or plaut) Avhich had been in- 

 jured. This information obtained, with no knowledge whatever of 

 classification, he would be able, by means of the plates, to find the cul- 

 prit in a very little time, even if the figures were not sufficiently accu- 

 rate for the determination of fine specific differences. Having learned 

 the species, or even an allied species, reference from plate to text would 

 put him in possession of the main facts in the history of the insect, time 

 of appearance of different stages of the pest, and when and how to com- 

 bat it. And if the information given was not sufficient he could make 

 use of the references to other works there quoted. 



This is, briefly, the manner in which the work was intended to be 

 used, and, as it contains over 6,000 figures of insects more or less in- 

 jurious (or beneficial) to American agriculture, I may repeat that noth- 

 ing like it has ever before been attempted, and that its completion and 

 publication would have serv^ed to vastly popularize the science of ento- 

 mology in the United States. But while its production is a marvel of 

 patience, persistence, and self-sacrificing industry, in the twenty years 

 its author was engaged ui)on it, he might have so systematized the work 

 of its production — calling others to his assistance to relieve himself of 

 the mere drudgery — and so have organized the plan of publication that 

 it would have been completed and placed in every large library of the 

 land while he was yet entomologist of the Department of Agriculture. 



The point has been made that some of Mr. Glover's figures are not 

 ii [together accurate, if not in some instances badly drawn. The criti- 

 cism is sometimes a just one, although in their entirety the drawings 

 will bear favorable comparison with similar entomological illustrations 

 of the times. One point must be admitted, that the earlier plates are 

 much better than the later ones, as will readily be seen by careful com- 

 parison. That this is due to two causes there can be little doubt: Some- 

 what impaired, or gradually failing eyesight in the first place (the more 

 positive cause), and less care in the second place, through impatience 

 to keep up with incoming material. The completion of two plates a 

 month, ''out of office hours," and in the hours of daylight, with all the 

 work of making the drawings before undertaking tne engraving, and 

 coloring six or eight sets of the proofs afterwards, should be regarded as 

 expeditious work for a man sixty years of age, Mr. Glover himself re- 

 gretted having made certain of the plates (early ones in the Lepidoptera), 

 chiefly taken from Smith and Abbott's Insects of Georgia, and from a 

 few later works. Some of the far western Orthoptera, too, which were 

 figured from alcoholic specimens, and colored from descriptions, or 

 from other figures, and sometimes from notes made by the collector, are 

 not wholly satisfactory, although readily recognizable by those who 

 have seen the insects in life. Fault has likewise been found with his 

 smaller figures, many of which should have been enlarged to show 

 specific differences in a marked degree, natural size being indicated in 

 the usual manner or by a second figure. All very minute species were 

 properly enlarged, and are, therefore, more valuable. 



