EEPOET OF THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



To the State Department of Agriculture. 



But three official reports on entomology in Massachusetts 

 appear to have been published in the history of the Common- 

 wealth. Dr. T. W. Harris, as a member of a scientific com- 

 mission appointed by the State for a geological and botanical 

 survey, prepared a "Report on Insects Injurious to Vegeta- 

 tion," which was published in 1841, in a revised form in 

 1852, and as a third edition, revised by Secretary Charles 

 L. Flint, in 1862. Though this work by the father of economic 

 entomology will always remain a monument to the memory 

 of its author and an honor to the State which authorized it, 

 it cannot be placed in the class of reports. 



In the seventeenth annual report of the secretary of the 

 Board of Agriculture for 1869 is an essay by Dr. A. S. Packard 

 on "New or Little Known Injurious Insects," followed in the 

 eighteenth report of the secretary by a "First Report on the 

 Injurious and Beneficial Insects of the State of Massachusetts," 

 Dr. Packard having been elected entomologist to the Board in 

 August, 1870. A second and third of these reports followed, 

 but for some reason they were discontinued. There have been 

 later entomologists to the Board, but for the most part the 

 position has been regarded as merely an honorary one and no 

 reports have been published. 



Massachusetts accordingly has nothing to show in the way 

 of a series of reports on the insects of the State from year 

 to year, — nothing to correspond to the long series coming 

 from Illinois, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and many 

 other States, — a condition much to be regretted, as such a 

 series would now be almost invaluable if it were in existence. 

 Even a record of insect conditions each year, carefully worked 

 up, would be of great use, and such a record for the year 

 1918 is therefore presented here. 



