INTRODUCTION. VII 



Annual Report of the State Entomologist,* and repealing all acts and 

 parts of acts inconsistent with that in which the above authoriza- 

 tion is given, so far as the same related to the State Board of Agri- 

 culture. This law was interpreted by Dr. Thomas to make it the 

 duty of the State Entomologist to report annually instead of bien- 

 nially, and his Second Report (the seventh in all) was consequently 

 rendered in 1877, and related to the work of that year. It was 

 printed, as authorized by the above law, as an appendix to the 

 Report of the State Department of Agriculture, and two hundred 

 copies are understood to have been issued separately in pamphlet 

 form. 



The succeeding Reports, from the Eighth to the Eleventh, (from 

 the third to the sixth of Thomas), have a similar history, all being 

 annually published as appendices to the Agricultural Report of the 

 corresponding year, and issued separately to the number of two 

 hundred copies. These appendices are all paged separately, and 

 are not mentioned upon the title page of the Report of the Depart- 

 ment nor in the lettering upon the back of the volume. 



The Eleventh Report (for 1881) was the last by Dr. Thomas, as 

 he tendered his resignation early in 188'2, to take effect June 30, of 

 that year. 



The present incumbent, Stephen Alfred Forbes, was appointed 

 July 3, 188*2, and his first Report, the Twelfth of the office and 

 the last here indexed, although made as for the entire year then 

 current, actually related only to the latter half of it. 



To complete the record of the office to the date of writing, it may 

 be added that the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Reports, for the years 

 1883 and 1884, were j)riuted, like the preceding, as appendices to 

 the Transactions of the State Department of Agriculture for the 

 corresponding years, and that the usual editions of two hundred 

 copies each were issued separately. 



No office accommodations have ever been furnished the State 

 Entomologist by the State, and the location of the oifiee has con- 

 sequently varied with the personal residence of the Entomologist, — 

 that of Mr. Walsh at Rock Island, of Dr. LeBaron at Geneva, of 

 Dr. Thomas at Carbondale, and that of Prof. Forbes, at first at the 

 State Normal University, at Normal, but transferred to the Illinois 

 Industrial University, at Champaign, at the beginning of the current 

 year. 



The first legislative appropriation to the State Entomologist for 

 any expenses other than those of salary and the bare publication 

 of his reports, was made at the session of 1873, when $700 was 

 appropriated for the illustration of the reports of Dr. LeBaron for 

 the years 1872 and 1873, and for the necessary stationery and 

 postage stamps to be used in the performance of his official 

 duties. Dr. LeBaron had received, however, previous to this time, 

 from the contingent fund of the Governor, the sum of $2,685, 



*Tbis provit^ion was reiterated in 1883, in the amended law relating to the State Board 

 of Agiiculture. 



