28 FIFTH ANNUAL REPORT 



made, is, necessarily, the result of much labor in the field, and close 

 study in the closet, and should combine the practically useful with 

 the scientifically accurate. It should be copiously illustrated, and 

 the illustrations must generally be prepared from life by the author; 

 for, strange as it may seem, there are few artists — however talented 

 they ma}'' otherwise be — who can draft an insect with anatomical pre- 

 cision. Such a report, aside from its educational value, is of great 

 material value to the State; but its usefulness will depend on the 

 methods established by law for its distribution, as well as on the time 

 of year of such distribution. In our own State it is bound in with the 

 Agricultural R3port, which is often a bulky volume, requiring a large 

 amount of postage when sent through the mail ; and I regret that 

 there is not some provision of the law to have a small edition of the 

 Entomological Report bound separately, to meet the demand that is 

 constantly being made of me for the same. 



The State Entomologist must, further, answer by letter or through 

 the columns of different journals a host of queries that are contin- 

 ually pouring in upon him from correspondents. He should endeavor 

 to protect the farmer from the impostors and quack nostrum venders 

 who are ever ready to palm off their vile compounds upon the unso- 

 phisticated, as panaceas for all vegetable and animal ills. He must 

 lecture ; he must read a paper here and an essay there, whenever 

 good can thus be accomplished. He must travel hither and thither 

 over the State, to investigate the insects that are peculiar to different 

 sections ; he must carry on all sorts of experiments ; but above all, he 

 should employ every moment of time, not otherwise occupied, in as- 

 certaining the habits and transformations of species. 



These are the more ostensible duties of such an officer; but he 

 has, in addition, to form a cabinet; and the collecting, the classifica- 

 tion and arrangement, the proper determination of the species or de- 

 scription of such as are new — not to mention the manipulation neces- 

 sary to prepare the specimens for such a cabinet — involve an amount 

 of scientific detail and application, and of correspondence with sci- 

 entific men throughout the civilized world, which tew but those who 

 have some insight into the life of a naturalist can appreciate. 



Now, according to the means expended will be the results atr 

 tained. There is a limit to one man's capabilities, and where the 

 means are restricted, it often happens that only the independent 

 enthusiast, who looks for other than mercenary reward, can aflbrd to 

 fill such a position if he wishes to do any good at all. His expenses 

 for engraving, electrotyping and other illustrating material ; for books, 

 stationery, expressage and postage; for assistance, experiments and 

 experimental material; for cabinets, chemicals and paraphernalia for 

 collecting and preserving; for traveling, etc., must all come from a 

 salary which in no instance has yet exceeded $3,033 per annum. The 

 means are not at all commensurate with the vital interests at stake, 



