BENEFICIAL AND INJURIOUS INSECTS 



powerful, too subtile and insatiable in methods of de- 

 struction, to be overcome single-handed. 



State and governmental aid and organized effort were 

 and are necessary. Some of the States of the Union 

 have established separate entomological departments, 

 and maintain them with more or less efficiency. The 

 general government is represented in the war against 

 insect invaders by the Entomological Bureau, and 

 spends in connection with the State agricultural stations 

 one hundred thousand dollars a year. Considering the 

 interests at stake the sum is inadequate, even paltry. 

 A hundred thousand dollars spent to save the nation a 

 loss of over eight hundred millions ! The mere statement 

 shows the insufficiency of the endeavor. Yet even this 

 appropriation is grudgingly given by many legislators, 

 who unfortunately are not acquainted with the magni- 

 tude of the interests at issue. There is some advantage, 

 but also much disadvantage, in the influx of new mem- 

 bers brought by every biennial congressional election. 

 The fresh element is unfamiliar with the details of such 

 a work as our economic entomologists have in hand. 

 The subject is foreign to their tastes and knowledge. 

 The field lies outside the current of their ordinary expe- 

 riences. Few farmers and fruit-growers are sent to 

 Congress. The new-comers must be educated, and the 

 "missionary work" must be renewed continually. It is, 

 therefore, an act of real public beneficence when the 

 editors of current literature and great publishing houses 

 undertake to present the facts to large constituencies in 

 popular form. 



In quite another field, upon which we are not to enter 

 now, the need for and the success of government action 

 have been shown most notably. No page in the history 



309 



