THE PRACTICAL ENTOMOLOGIST. 



31 



as much as would be necessary, but I always like to un- 

 derstate, rather than to overstate a case. Suppose further, 

 that the result should be, not a perfect cure, but only a 

 palliation of the damage to the extent of 10 per cent, an- 

 nually. There would then be $2,781.25 worth of Hickory 

 lumber annually saved to the State, against which we 

 should have to set, ist, the annual cost to the wagon- 

 makers of applying the newly-discovered remedy, which, 

 to be on the safe side, we will put at the odd $1,781.25; 

 and 2nd, the annual interest on the sum invested, which, 

 at 10 per cent., would be $500. The balance to be carried 

 to the profit side of the State Ledger would be annually 

 $500, or cent per cent upon the sum annually expended 

 bythe State. Most merchants would consider thisavery 

 fair business operation. 



It may be objected that this would be class-legislation, 

 and that it would be an unjust thing to tax the whole 

 community for the special benefit of either the Gardener, 

 or the Orchardist, or the Wagon-maker. But in almost 

 all such cases as these, the commodity produced is cither 

 too bulky or too perishable to be supplied from the mar- 

 ket of the world, and therefore its price is not governed 

 by the market of the world but by the local market. 

 Consequently it would make no difference at all to the 

 Wagon-maker, for example, if 50 or 75 percent. — instead 

 of 17i per cent. — of bis Hickory lumber was annually 

 "powder-posted" and ruined. He would then of course, 

 just as he does now, put the entire loss upon the price of 

 his manufactured goods; and, as in all such cases, it 

 would be the consumer, i. e. the general mass of the citi- 

 zens, that eventually had to foot the bill. Precisely on 

 the same principles, if he had less Hickory lumber an- 

 nually destroyed, competition would compel hiu\ to lower 

 the price of his manufactured goods, and then it would be 

 the consumer, and not the manufacturer, that would reap 

 the benefit. No fact in Political Economy is better 

 known or better established than this. On the other 

 hand, commodities such as Beef, Pork, Corn and Wheat, 

 which may be supplied from the market of the world, 

 and the price of which is therefore governed by their 

 price, not in the local "market, but in the market of the 

 world, are in the State of Illinois almost all of them pro- 

 duced by the Farmers. Here, indeed, it is undoubtedly 

 true, that any discovery that enabled the Farmers to 

 raise, for example, more Wheat or more Corn, would put 

 money into their private pockets. But it is notorious, that 

 whatever benefits the Farmers of Illinois benefits the 

 whole community also, because Illinois is essentially an 

 agricultural State. 



I have dwelt, at perhaps undue length, upon this appa- 

 rently trivial case of damage done by Insects, because 

 there are scores of sueb cases, known only to the Ento- 

 mologist and to the particular tradesman whose property 

 is injured. The damage done in each case is, comjiar.a- 

 tively speaking, small, but the sum total foots up away 

 into the millions. Add to these the well-known aucl 

 thrice-told tale of the almost fabulous amounts, annually 

 filched out of the pockets of the Agriculturists by the 

 Bark-louse, the White Grub, the Plant-louse, the Army- 

 worm, the Codling Moth, the Plum Gouger, the Curculio, 

 the Hessian Fly, the Wheat-midge, the Chinch-bug, and 

 a host ofothers ; and I am satisfied that my former esti- 

 mate of $20,000,000, as the average annual damage done 

 to the single Statcof Illinois by Noxious Insects, is rather 

 below than above the mark. By means of carefully eon- 

 ducted experiments, I have little doubt that a considera- 

 ble percentage of this gigantic amount might, in process 

 of time, be annually saved to the State. But if only 1 

 per cent, was eventually saved, there would be an aunual 

 gain to the State for all time of $200,000. 



It is very true that such investments as those referred 



to above redound, not only to the benefit of the particular 

 State that makes them, but also to that of the whole Union. 

 But to a patriotic State this would be an incentive, ra- 

 ther than an objection. When, some twenty years ago, 

 New York engaged Dr. Fitch as her State Entomologist, 

 she never stopped to enquire whether other States might 

 not be jointly benefited with herself— as has actually 

 proved to be the case — by the scientific investigations of 

 that distinguished Naturali-st. When Massachusetts 

 voted a sum of money, to enable Dr. Harris to write his 

 well-known and excellent Report on Injurious Insects, it 

 never occurred to her to ask, whether the book would not 

 circulate in other States besides Massachusetts. The 

 West has hitherto been sponging on the East for informa- 

 tion on this all-important subject. Let her now recipro- 

 cate the obligation. She ought to do this, if only from 

 purely selfish motives; for she has many Injurious In- 

 sects, as for example the Chinch-bug and the New York 

 Weevil, which, although they occur in very minute num- 

 bers in the Eastern States, yet never swarm there, as they 

 often do in the West, so as to come under the observation 

 of Eastern Entomologists. Besides, Illinois, as is well 

 known, was called upon in the late war to find a General- 

 in-chief for the armies of the whole Union. She respond- 

 ed to the call ; how well and how gloriously she res- 

 ponded, is known to the whole world. People, there- 

 fore, naturally expect of her now to furnish a Bugmaster- 

 general for that far more numerous and more destructive 

 army — the Noxious Insects of the United States. 



The recommendations given above with regard to re- 

 medies will, doubtless, strike the intelligent reader as, in 

 some cases, based too much upon analogies and inferences, 

 and too little upon facts and experiments. I am well 

 aware myself, that all such recommendations, however 

 theoretically specious, ought to be practically tested by a 

 sufficient series of careful experiments, before they are 

 finally accepted as reliable. There are experiments 

 enough of this nature — bearing upon the practicability of 

 counterworking the various noxious insects, that annually, 

 within the United States, destroy at least three hundred 

 million dollars' worth of property — to occupy the entire 

 life-time of fifty good and experienced Naturalists. For a 

 single private individual to atterajit to make any head- 

 way against this vast sea of labor, would be like Mrs. 

 Partington trying to mop up the Atlantic Ocean. Be- 

 sides, why should any scientific man gratuitously devote 

 his time to drudgery of this kind? It is of no manner of 

 scientific interest, whether the farmers of the United 

 States annually lose fifty million dollars by the Chinch 

 Bug, the Hessian Fly and the Wheat Midge, or whether 

 they lose only fiity cents by these same three insects. 

 The natural history of these three insects is, of course, 

 scientifically interesting, just as is that of any other three 

 insects, that have never yet inflicted one cent's worth of 

 damage upon the Agricultural Community. But it be- 

 longs to Art, and not to Science, to test the practical effi- 

 ciency of the various artificial means, by which the ra- 

 vages of these and other noxious insects may be either 

 palliated or prevented. Any fact that, in the regular 

 course of his scientific researches, comes to the knowledge 

 of the Naturalist, bearing upon utilitarian objects, he 

 freely and without stint communicates to the public. In 

 the Scientific World there are no secrets, and none but 

 the Charlatan endeavors to make merchandize of so pure 

 and holy a thing as Science. But it is sheer folly to ex- 

 pect the private student, when the whole bright heaven 

 of unexplored knowledge lies open to his view and 

 blazing above him, to grovel on the earth and gratui- 

 tously devote an inglorious life-time to the transmutation 

 of dimes into dollars in the pockets of his fellow-citizens. 



EocK Island, III., Dec. 25, IbOo. 



