4O2 ENTOMOLOGY 



exerted in visits to infested localities and by addresses before 

 agricultural meetings. Special emergencies often tax every 

 resource of the official entomologist, especially if he is ham- 

 pered by inadequate legislative provision for his work. Too 

 often the public, disregarding the prophetic voice of the expert, 

 refuses to "close the door until the horse is stolen." 



Aside from these emergencies, such as outbreaks of the 

 Rocky Mountain locust, chinch bug, Hessian fly, San Jose 

 scale and others, the State or Experiment Station entomologist 

 has his hands full in any State of agricultural importance; in 

 fact, can scarcely discharge his duties properly without the aid 

 of a corps of competent assistants. 



This chapter would be incomplete without some mention of 

 the progress of economic entomology in this country, especially 

 since America is pre-eminently the home of the science. The 

 history of the science is largely the history of the State and 

 Government entomologists, for the following account of whose 

 work we are indebted chiefly to the writings of Dr. Howard, 

 to which the reader is referred for additional details as well 

 as for a comprehensive review of the status of economic ento- 

 mology in foreign countries. 



Massachusetts. Dr. Thaddeus W. Harris, though preceded 

 as a writer upon economic entomology by William D. Peck, 

 was our pioneer official entomologist official simply in the 

 sense that his classic volume was prepared and published at 

 the expense of the state of Massachusetts, first (1841) as a 

 " Report " and later as a " Treatise." The splendid Flint 

 edition (1862), entitled "A Treatise on Some of the Insects 

 Injurious to Vegetation," is still " the vade mecum of the 

 working entomologist who resides in the northeastern section 

 of the country." 



Dr. Alpheus S. Packard gave the state three short but use- 

 ful reports from 1871 to 1873. 



As entomologist to the Hatch Experiment Station of the 

 Massachusetts Agricultural College, Prof. Charles H. Fernald 

 has issued important bulletins upon injurious insects, and has 



