66 MASSACHUSETTS HOETICTILTURAL SOCIETT. 



with the entomologist. It will not be until the horticulturist or the 

 farmer calls in an entomologist to prescribe for insect ravages, that 

 these can be reduced within reasonable limits. Every one will ad- 

 mit, when the ravages are in progress, that a remedy for each Idnd 

 of injury alone would be of immense value, but few can command 

 the means of being at the same time cultivators of plants and pro- 

 ficient students of the insects which are injurious. Moreover, much 

 of the greatest protection afforded to plants comes bj' the agency of 

 insects, whose labors must be understood and appreciated before 

 they can be secure against destruction. 



Mr. Mann called attention to the action of several of the states 

 in the Mississippi valle}' , especially the state of Missouri, which has 

 maintained a State Entomologist at a salary of two thousand dollars 

 a year for nine years. The labors of this entomologist have been 

 recognized as of very great value, and have brought to him, among 

 other tokens of esteem, the gift of a gold medal from the govern- 

 ment of France. nHnois and Tennessee, as well as other states, 

 have maintained State Entomologists, and the State Agricultural 

 Society of New York, has declared that the labors of the entomo- 

 logist employed by it have been worth fifty thousand dollars a year 

 to that state. 



Mr. Mann expressed the opinion that the services of a State 

 Entomologist would be of equal value to our own commonwealth. 

 The state of Massachusetts has received the benefit of the labors 

 of Dr. Packard, of Salem, for several years, but in such a way that 

 Dr. Packard has been obliged to bear part of the expense of the 

 publication of his reports in the ' ' Eeport of the Secretar}" of the 

 State Board of Agriculture," while receiving no pay for his labor. 

 Mr. Mann thought it of the utmost importance for the horticulturists 

 of this state to secure a recognition of their claims, and that ad- 

 dresses upon entomology were of little avail towards the diminution 

 of the ravages of insects in any other way than by arousing the 

 people to a realization of their rights and their best interests. 



Discussion. 



The Chairman said that none of us realize the great injury from 

 insects, which is increasing rather than diminishing, as the Colorado 

 beetle and other new insects make their appearance. He regretted 

 that we should be so far behind Missouri and other states, in our 

 measures to attain to and disseminate a knowledge of injurious in- 



