﻿134 EIGHTH ANNUAL REPORT 



work intrusted to a commission such as that called for, is too impor- 

 tant and serious to leave in control of any one individual. If Mr. 

 Watts had had any due appreciation of the needs of Western agri- 

 culture, he would long ere this have taken steps to have the work 

 performed which it is designed that such a commission shall perform^ 

 and would have asked for the proper appropriations to enable him to 

 do so, instead of making large annual demands on Congress to enable 

 him to run a competition with legitimate seedsmen, by establishing 

 a gigantic National seed store, which has been instrumental in doing^ 

 no small injury by disseminating noxious weeds and insects. 



The second bill would far more nearly meet the requirements of 

 the country. It restricts the time during which the commission shall 

 exist, and limits its cost. If the blank be filled in with $10,000, which 

 would be sufficient to cover cost of experiments and other expenses, 

 the annual expense could not exceed, and might fall below, $25,000. 

 It specifies more clearly the duties of the commission, and provides 

 for the investigation of not one, but of several, of our worst insect 

 pests. It gives us, also, the best guarantee of judicious appointments ;, 

 for if the assembled judgment of such a body as the National Academy 

 of Science— composed mainly of men now engaged in scientific work 

 for the government, and of those who have devoted their lives to ap- 

 plied science — will not give us a competent commission, I know not 

 what will. 



The good that a commission properly constituted and supported 

 might do for the country is incalculable. We have made some pro- 

 gress in the field of economic entomology during the past quarter of 

 a century, and particularly during the past decade. The few ento- 

 mologists that have been employed by different States have made 

 imjDortant discoveries and recommendations, while practical men who 

 have kept themselves informed of the knowledge recorded by these 

 officers have not failed to apply it, and have often devised measures 

 and schemes of great value in the warfare against insect pests. Still 

 the State Entomologists have, for the most part, been obliged to con- 

 fine their attention to investigating the habits of local pests ; neither 

 the time nor the means that have been at their command have per- 

 mitted the carrying on of elaborate and expensive investigations 

 such as those we may expect from a National Commission more gen- 

 erously supported. The consequence is that some of the most injuri- 

 ous insects, such as those mentioned in Senator Ingalls's bill, have 

 never been fully investigated, and to this day there are important 

 points in the history of several of them, that remain a mystery. 



The species mentioned in the bill are of national importance, and 



