REPORT OF THE SOCIETY 63 



with the amount of material that can be ruined b}- a class of students, espe- 

 cially when it consists of pinned specimens. The wastage is often appalling and 

 necessitates the constant renewal of the material. The speaker has found it 

 advisable in all preliminary work such as elementarj^ morphology and 

 taxononw to use specimens preserved in liquid. This enables the student to 

 handle and stud}' the specimens without the certainty of having them rendered 

 unfit for further use. 



2. The course should be intensive rather than extensive and should not be 

 designed to cover too much ground. — Any instructor who is enthusiastic over 

 his subject is naturalh- desirous of giving his student as much as he can in the 

 time at his disposal. This frequently results in the general principles of the 

 subject being smothered in a mass of detail. This is just as true for degree stu- 

 dents as for those taking the kind of couise that I am describing. Tvlost of 

 you have had the experience of having a colleague try to explain some insect 

 that he has seen attacking some plant. Usually he cannot tell whether it was 

 a bug or a beetle. In spite of the fact that he had had advanced courses in 

 economic entomology and though insects and their activities are forced on his 

 attention every day, he has completely forgotten all he ever learned about the 

 subject. While it is quite natural to forget things we do not use, such cases do 

 not come entireh^ in this categorj- and the fault, I am convinced, can be attri- 

 buted in a ver}' large measure to the fact that when they took the work they 

 were given more detail than they could assimilate in the time available. 



All will agree that the student should be able to recognize an insect when he 

 sees one and should know enough about mouth parts to distinguish the main 

 types, that he should be familiar with the main orders and the main groups of 

 economic forms within the order, that they should also be reasonably familiar 

 with the immature stages of these orders, that he should be instructed in the pre- 

 paration and use of such poison sprays or dusts as he is likely to use on his own 

 farm and to be familiar with the injurious stages of the chief farm pests. In 

 such a brief and practical course it would not be necessary for all the students to 

 study exacth- the same insects in their laboratory work. For example, a stu- 

 dent may come from a fruit district and be interested in fruit alone. Xaturallj-, 

 in his case, emphasis should be placed upon the study of fruit insects, whereas 

 if his chief interest were in live stock the insect pests of farm animals would natu- 

 rally be given first attention. In our work this idea is being developed, but the 

 extent to which it can be carried out will depend entirely upon the number 

 of students and the assistance available in any particular department. 



In dividing the work of the two terms, our practice is to give the general 

 principles of insect structure, classification and control with a few striking exam- 

 ples, leaving the more detailed study of the application of these principles for the 

 second term. 



3. The work should be presented in an interesting, a practical and a non- 

 technical manner. — Most teachers will agree with this general proposition, but 



