70 



There is no need of any comment upon these nine Missouri reports 

 before any body of economic or scientific entomologists. They are 

 monuments to the State of Missouri, and more especially to the man 

 who wrote them. They are original, practical, and scientific ; they cover 

 a very great range of injurious insects, and practically all the species 

 which were especially injurious during those nine years received full and 

 careful treatment. They may be said to have formed the basis for the 

 new economic entomology of the world, and they include a multitude 

 of observations and intelligent deductions which have influenced scien- 

 tific thought. Their value to the agriculturist, as well as to scientific 

 readers, was greatly enhanced by the remarkable series of illustrations 

 which were drawn by the author and engraved upon wood by the 

 most skillful wood engravers of that time. Aside from a few of the 

 illustrations to the Flint edition of Harris, they are the best wood cuts 

 ever made of insects in this country, and as a whole the drawing far 

 excels that of the Harris illustrations in its lifelike accuracy, artistic 

 beauty, and closeness of detail. Prof. Riley abandoned his Missouri 

 work on taking up the directorship of the U. S. Entomological Com- 

 mission, and in pursuance of a shortsighted policy Missouri has never 

 since had a State entomologist. 



Other States and the Hatch State Agricultural Experi- 

 ment Stations. — Massachusetts, New York, Illinois, and Missouri are 

 the only States which may be said to have supported official economic 

 entomologists. There are letters on file in the Division, dated in 1880, 

 from Mr. J. T. Humphreys, who announces himself in his letter head as 

 "Late naturalist and entomologist to the Georgia Department of Agri- 

 culture;" but although I have made something of an effort to learn the 

 details of Mr. Humphreys's employment, I have so far been unsuc- 

 cessful. The State of Pennsylvania has for some years handled its 

 economic entomology by means of an officer who holds an honorary 

 commission from the State board of agriculture. This commission was 

 held for some years prior to his death by Dr. S. S. Rathvou. At the 

 •present time Dr. Henry Skinner, of Philadelphia, and Dr. R. C. 

 Scheldt, of Lancaster, are entomologists to the State board. 



In the spring of 1888, the State Agricultural Experiment Stations, 

 founded under the Hatch Act, were organized. A number of entomol- 

 ogists were soon appointed and active work began practically in the 

 month of February. This movement, the importance of which to 

 American economic entomology can hardly be overestimated, is too 

 recent to require full treatment liere. 



The first entomological bulletin published by any of the experiment 

 stations was issued in Ajoril, 1888, from the Arkansas station, by Mr. S. H. 

 Grossman, and was entitled The Peach-tree Borer and the Codling Moth. 

 Bulletins from Hulst, in New Jersey; Morse, in California; Tracy, in 

 Mississippi; Ashmead,in Florida; and Weed, in Ohio, followed in May. 

 Popenoe, in Kansas, and Perkins, in Yermont, published one each in 



