106 



Illinois Natural History Sur\ey Bulletin 



Vol. 27. Art. 2 



a ineen'n^ at Cobdeii, Illinois, in \o- 

 \ember, 1(S67, he said: 



I do not regret to say that I belong to the 

 modern school of science, and think it no deg- 

 radation, so far as my specialty is concerned, 

 to bring science to the aid of practical men in 

 the related departments of human industry. 

 And I need not tell you, for you know, that 

 insects pick your pockets, and that to fight them 

 successfully it is necessary to know their habits 

 and how to distinguish friends from foes 

 (Walsh 1868rt:143). 



Cyrus Thomas subscribed to the new 

 philosophy several years before he became 

 State Entomologist. 



And the study of natural history is a useful 

 study, having many direct practical advan- 

 tages. Agriculture is the pedestal on which the 

 stately fortunes of bankers and merchant kings 

 are reared, and as the pedestal contracts or 

 expands, so rises or falls the lofty column 

 (Thomas 1859«:667). 



Therefore, we say, that natural history 

 should be studied for the practical use made 

 of the knowledge obtained. And, if it be a 

 study so desirable and so useful, the question 

 arises, Should not the study be generaUy intro- 

 duced into our schools and colleges? 



I answer, most emphatically, j^es ! There is 

 no other branch of physics, nor any branch of 

 metaphysics so important and so necessary to 

 be studied in the school room as natural his- 

 tory. And I am glad to see that quite a num- 

 ber of institutions have ventured to cross the 

 Rubicon; yet others are halting at the brink, 

 fearful of the result (Thomas 1859rt:668). 



Thus, the first and third State Ento- 

 mologists publicly expressed their views. 

 They took office dedicated to the task of 

 assisting the residents of the state of Illi- 

 nois to find practical solutions for their 

 numerous and complex entomological 

 problems. Their successors followed the 

 same course. 



PRACTICAL PROBLEMS AND 

 PROGRESS 



Change is eternal in the insect world ; 

 thus, it appears that the need for contin- 

 ued stud\' of insects will never end. This 

 situation ma\- be confusing to laymen, but 

 entomologists and others who have closely 

 studied nature realize that insects are 

 dynamic creatures subject to constant 

 change in characteristics. Because of 

 their great mutabilit\, insects have sur- 

 vived in an ever-changing world for mil- 

 lions of years and are still capable of 



making the necessary adjustments to 

 many of the important changes in their 

 environment. Most of the important eco- 

 logical changes in an area or community 

 are accompanied by changes in the insect 

 fauna; some species drop out and others 

 move in. 



Every agricultural practice adopted or 

 discarded by man induces a significant en- 

 vironmental change or modification which 

 will favorably or unfavorably affect in- 

 sects and, for that matter, all other living 

 organisms in the area involved. Changes 

 in crop rotations, fertilization practices, 

 pruning, or drainage will prove favorable 

 for some species and unfavorable for oth- 

 ers. 



At the time the Office of State Ento- 

 mologist was established in Illinois, fruit 

 and vegetable crops could not be econom- 

 ically produced and marketed in the state 

 without reasonably effective insect con- 

 trol. Since the high per acre value of such 

 crops seemed to warrant expenditures for 

 insect control, Illinois producers of these 

 crops demanded and received a large 

 share of the Entomologist's time. As the 

 nature and magnitude of insect losses in 

 other agricultural and nonagricultural 

 areas became more apparent and better 

 understood, pressures from a multitude of 

 other sources necessitated a realignment 

 and much greater diversification of ento- 

 mological research. 



Space will not permit enumeration and 

 full discussion of all the insect problems 

 that have arisen to plague Illinois farm- 

 ers in the past century and it will not 

 allow a detailed review of the thousands 

 of printed pages that have been used to 

 record the findings of research conducted 

 during this period. Therefore, in the 

 brief resume that follows we confine our 

 attention to a few specific examples. 



Fruit Insects 



In 1868 an editor of The American 

 Entomologist, probably Walsh, sum- 

 marized the fruit insect situation as fol- 

 lows : 



It is notorious among fruit growers, that the 

 Curculio has now almost entirely vetoed the 

 cultivation of the plum ; and of late years this 

 pernicious little Snout-beetle has extended its 

 ravages to the peach, and even to the apple 

 and pear, to say nothing of those rarer and 



