6 



Both you and myself were now manifestly placed in a false posi- 

 tion. When the five hundred dollars was voted by you on May 21st; 

 it was known that a Special Session would have to be called some time 

 that year, and it was confidently anticipated by every one, that either 

 myself or some one else would be duly appointed, and confirmed by 

 the Senate as State Entomologist at that Special Session, whenever it 

 met. As the matter actually stood at the close of that Session, neither 

 myself nor any body else had any legal claim either to the title or to 

 the emoluments of State Entomologist; and in the ordinary course oO 

 events no one could have such claim for a year and a half thereafter. 

 It was manifestly absurd to suppose, that I could for the sum of $50() 

 perform for two whole years duties, for which the Legislature had 

 thought $4,000 to be a suitable compensation; and the impression ou 

 my mind was strong, that the whole movement in this direction had 

 proved a failure and fallen to the ground. All men saw and felt that 

 the Political Commissioners, who had been in the same boat as my- 

 self, were politically killed. I supposed therefore that the State 

 Entomologist was entomologically killed. 



Feeling as I have stated above, I wrote on June 19th, 1867, to 

 your President, offering to release the Society entirely from any pecu- 

 niary claim that I might have on them, and, if they declined such 

 offer, proposing to continue my researches and investigations in the 

 matter of those insects that are peculiarly injurious to fruit, not for 

 the entire period of two years, but for a fair and reasonable time. 

 Your President in his reply, dated July 3d, 1867, declined the former 

 alternative and accepted the latter, generously leaving the amount of 

 labor to be done by me on account of the $500 entirely to my discre- 

 tion. And here the matter rested for the present; and I went ahead 

 with those investigations, which I had commenced at the end of May 

 and continued up to the receipt of President Baldwin's last letter. 



It was my earnest wish to have attended the Meeting of your 

 Society held at South Pass, Sept. 3 — 5, 1867; but, as will be seen 

 from the following report, several insects — and in particular a very 

 delicate small moth preying on the plum, which was an entirely new 

 discovery of mine, and which will be found figured and described iri 

 the Eeport as "the Plum Moth"- — would persist in coming out at 

 that very period; and if I had then left home, almost all my speci- 

 mens of this moth Avould have been ruined for want of immediate 

 attention, and the discovery thrown over to be completed in some 

 subsequent 3'ear. I had also other investigations in progress which 

 required daily care ; and I ventured to flatter myself, that I could do 

 the fruit-growers of Illinois more service by staying at home and 



