REPORT OF THE SOCIETY 17 



Conference in Odessa, which was called mainly for discussing measures of destroj'ingA nisoplia 

 s genus of chafers. As a result of the decision of the Seventh Entomological Conference in Odessa 

 there was estabhshed at theEntomological Commission of Odessa a post of economic entomologist 

 supported by the joint funds of all the zemstvos ( 1) that took part in the work of this Commis- 

 sion. Thus was started the local entomological organization. 



The question of a systematic study of pests of agriculture, which was first discussed at the 

 First Entomological Conference at Odessa, was only taken up twenty years later. In 1903 the 

 Board of Directors of the "'South Russian Society for Encouraging Agriculture and Rural 

 Inda'^try in Kiev presented to the ministry of agriculture a memorandum pointing out the great 

 amount of damage caused to agriculture, in particular to the beetroot plantations in the 

 South-western region and the provinces next to it, by different in.-ect pests and asked that a 

 post of entomologist to the Society be estabhshed at the joint expense of the Society and the 

 Department of Agriculture, and promising to finance all the expenses incurred in equipping the 

 entomological laboratory for the work of the entomologist. This request was at first declined 

 owing to the fact that the need of entomological help in the south-western region was already, 

 to a certain extent met by the yearly despatching there of the entomologists of the Department; 

 but next year the Department of Agriculture saw its way to change its decision, and on February 

 24th it issued a regulation to estabhsh an entomological station in the South Russian Agri- 

 cultural Society. 



Following the example of the entomological station in Kiev, other parts of Russia soon 

 opened stations and bureaus of this kind and by 1916 there weie already 16 such institutions. 

 TTie aim of these institutions was threefold:— 



1. The study of pests in their particular region, and determining the best means, according 



to local conditions, for destrojing them. 



2. The dissemination of knowledge regarding the best means of destroying such pests among 



the peasants and owners of land. 



3. The direction of measures for destroying such pests, should they appear en masse. 



Of these three problems, the most important for all the entomological stations and bureaus 

 was the last one; that of directing measures for the control of insect epidemics. This was the more 

 important because most of these stations and bureaus were founded when it became absolutely 

 necessary to take immediate measures for destroying the insects. This direction was of such a 

 character that the staff of the estabUshments not only organized but also took part in the execution 

 of the control measures. 



This field of activity took up mo^ of the time of the staff and hindered the development of 

 other hues of work, so these institutions naturally made it their aim to persuade the peasants 

 to handle the different measures for destroj'ing the pests en masse under the guidance and ins- 

 truction of specialists from the station or bureau, or the properly instructed agronomist, or 

 some other suitable member of the staff. 



The dissemination of knowledge about pests with rational means for destroying them among 

 the peasants was found to be a difficult problem. It was all the more difficult because the insti- 

 tutions had to reply to the questions of peasants and of owners of land concerning not only the 

 destruction of insect and animal pests, but also the control of plant diseases. 



Under such conditions, in the course of time there naturally arose the advisabiUty of separating 

 the phytopathological questions form the purely entomological institutions. The first entomological 

 institution to do this was that of Kiev, which was reorganized in 1913 into a station for the pro- 

 tection of plants from pests. 



The idea of dividing an institution into separate sections according to the estabhshed classi- 

 fication of the harmful organisms, was most fully expressed in regulations issued in 1916. 



The regulations (2) divide the staffs of these bureaus into speciahsts in the three following 

 subjects :— 



1. Applied entomology; 



2. Applied zoology; and 



3. Phytopathology. 



thus dividing these institutions into three separate sections. 



Moreover, these institutions are obliged to consider the fact that, apart from more or less 

 known insects and fungous pests, there exist other pests from which the cultivated plants occasion- 

 ally suffer, but which have not attracted the attention of the peasants o^-ing to the insignificant 

 harm done by them. 



(1) Local provincial government. 



(2) Worked out by B. P. Uvarov, who was entrusted with organization of plant protection in the 

 Caucasus in 191.5. 



