THE DEBT TO PURE SCIENCE 33 



when the carefully gathered specimen has been placed in the 

 herbarium with its proper label. That is but the beginning, 

 for he seeks the relations of plants in all phases. In seeking 

 these he discovers facts which often prove to be of cardinal 

 importance. The rust which destroys wheat in the last stage 

 of ripening, the disgusting fungus which blasts Indian corn, 

 the poisonous ergot in rye, the blight of the pear and other 

 fruits, fall as much within the botanist's study as do the flowers 

 of the garden or the sequoias of the Sierra. Not a few of the 

 plant diseases which have threatened famine or disaster have 

 been studied by botanists unknown to the world, whose ex- 

 planations have led to palHation or cure. 



The ichthyologist, studying the hal^its of fishes, discovered 

 characteristics which promptly commended themselves to 

 men of practical bent. The important industry of artificial 

 fertilization and the transportation of fish eggs, which has 

 enabled man to restock exhausted localities and to stock new 

 ones, is but the outgrowth of closet studies which have shown 

 how to utilize nature's superabundant supply. 



The entomologist has always been an interesting phe- 

 nomenon to a large part of our population. Insects of beauty 

 are attractive, those of large size are curious, while many of the 

 minuter forms are efficient in gaining attention. But that 

 men should devote their lives to the study of the unattractive 

 forms is to many a riddle. Yet entomology yields to no 

 branch of science in the importance of its economic bearings. 

 The study of the life habits of insects, their development, 

 their food, their enemies, a study involving such minute detail 

 as to shut men off from many of the pleasures of life and to 

 convert them into typical students, has come to be so fraught 

 with relations to the public weal that the state entomologist's 

 mail has more anxious letters than that of any other officer. 



Insects are no longer regarded as visitations from an 

 angry deity, to be borne in silence and with penitential awe. 

 The intimate study of individual groups has taught in many 

 cases how to antagonize them. The scab threatened to de- 

 stroy orange culture in California; the Colorado beetle seemed 

 Hkely to ruin one of our important food crops ; minute aphides 

 terrified raisers of fruit and cane in the Sandwich islands. 



Vol. 7-3 



