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to the undue multiplication of injurious insects than that of North 

 America, and which, moreover, seems to act as a barrier against the 

 importation of foreign destructive species, the actually smaller num- 

 ber of injurious species and the vastly greater familiarity with all 

 phases of the life history of these species by all classes of the people, 

 partly resulting from the older civilization, partly from educational 

 methods, and partly from the abundance of elementary and popular 

 literature on questions of this character, the denser population and 

 the resulting vastly smaller holdings in farms, the necessarily greatly 

 diversified crops, the frequent rotation of crops, together with the 

 clean and close cultivation necessitated by the small size of the hold- 

 ings, and the cheaper and more abundant labor, have all resulted in a 

 very different state of affairs regarding the damage which may be 

 done by injurious insects. In summarizing these points, the Chief of 

 the Agricultural Section of the Ministry of Agriculture of Prussia, in 

 conversation with the writer last summer, argued that Germany does 

 not need to emx)loy general economic entomologists; that its experi- 

 ment stations seldom receive applications for advice on entomological 

 topics. Special insects, it is true, occasionally spring into prominence; 

 the Phylloxera is one of these, and in an emergency like the Phylloxera 

 outbreak, the work is handled by special commissions. European 

 nations, therefore, can afford to let the insect problem alone to a much 

 greater extent than the United States, for the reason that it is of infinitely 

 less importance with them than with us. The most simple remedies, 

 such as hand-picking, together with a rigid enforcement of the public 

 regulations regarding hand destruction, usually suffice to keep injuri- 

 ous insects in check. Nevertheless insect outbreaks do occasionally 

 occur, and there is a certain percentage of loss every year from the 

 work of injurious species. The results obtained in the United States, 

 where the number of native injurious species is much greater tlian in 

 Europe, and where we have in addition to deal with a host of imported 

 species — in short, where the fighting of insect foes has become an abso- 

 lute necessity — have, however, acted to a certain degree as incentives, 

 not only to other countries which labor under the same climatic dis- 

 advantages as the United States, but even to a certain degree to 

 Euroj)ean countries, where more thorough investigation of injurious 

 insects by competent persons especially appointed for the purpose 

 is gradually becoming thought worth while. 



In 1890, at the Agricultural Congress held at Vienna, resolutions 

 were passed founding the so-called International Phytopathological 

 Commission. The movement was an important one, particularly for 

 European countries, and as work upon injurious insects forms a part of 

 the object of the commission the resolutions organizing it may be 

 given liere: 



1. Whereas the luiinerous diseases and other enemies of plants are a constant 

 source of damage, and sometimes even occasion the greatest losses to proprietors 



