LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL. 



Carbondale, III., Dec. 30, 1881. 

 Hon. James R. Scott, President Illinois State Board of Agriculture: 



Dear Sir: In submitting the "Eleventh Report of the State Ento- 

 mologist on the Noxious and Beneficial Insects of the State of Illinois," 

 allow me to express my thanks to you and the Board for the en- 

 couragement I have always received from you in this work. 



I am happy to state with even more emphasis than at the time 

 of submitting my previous report, that the demand for these works 

 is still on the increase in our own State and elsewhere. The out- 

 side demand has in fact become so great, that I have been com- 

 pelled to ask your Secretary to meet it, as far as possible, with 

 copies bound with the Transactions of the Board, as the two hun- 

 dred separate copies allowed me for distribution were wholly 

 inadequate for this purpose. 



Although I have material on hand sufficient to make a report 

 about the same size as that of last year, it has been thought best 

 that I cut it down so that it shall not exceed, when printed, one 

 hundred and twenty-five pages. 



In the preparation of this report I have been aided by Mr. D, W. 

 CoQUiLLETT, who resides in the northern portion of the State, and 

 was engaged in making observations for me in that section during 

 the past season; also by Prof. French. 



As you are well aware, the predictions I made last year (1880) 

 that the Chinch-bugs would probably appear in injurious numbers 

 in 1881 unfortunately for our farmers has proved only too true. This 

 fact tends strongly to confirm me in the belief that my deductions, drawn 

 from a comparison of the weather records of our State and the adjoin- 

 ing sections, are substantially correct, and that the periodicity indicated 

 in my last report is a climatic law of this portion of our country. 

 Judging, therefore, by this apparent periodicity, and what has been 

 ascertained in reference to the history, habits, and cause of increase 

 of these pests (the Chinch-bugs), I have elsewhere ventured to pre- 

 dict with much confidence that they will do no material injury 

 in 1882. 



