352 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS [Oct., '15 



It is SO with the economic entomologist. Primarily he 

 should know biology ; he should be conversant with the ac- 

 cepted theories or truths, the broad general descriptions or 

 laws of life; he must be practical in the use of literature, 

 meaning by that discriminating; he should have had actual 

 experience with many kinds of plants and animals, for upon 

 his experience combined with his capacity will depend his 

 entire practicality, his whole education, his character. He 

 must, of course, have had a large experience in dealing with 

 insects and their control. In a word, he should be truly edu- 

 cated, which means self -developed, learning from experience, 

 accepting all of the aids within his reach toward that end but 

 with discrimination. 



Economic entomology should be considered as being within 

 the broad field of applied biology, including medicine and agri- 

 culture in their widest sense. But, fundamentally, it is pure 

 biology, and therefore pure science and the eflForts of the lay- 

 man for profit to make of the economic entomologist a creature 

 belonging to him and a practical man in the ordinary sense 

 cannot result in anything else than loss to both, for the eco- 

 nomic entomologist must be fundamentally a biologist studying 

 insects and a biologist cannot be prostituted for gain without 

 hurt to himself. As a necessity, he cannot safely for gain or 

 for any other object whatsoever, prostitute his own mentality 

 in order to satisfy current or local vieivs regarding what is 

 practical. Thus we come to one of the crying needs of the 

 economic entomologist — that he should become no less than 

 theoretical. 



In applied entomology it is almost trite to state that a true 

 knowledge of the habits, instincts and home relations of insects 

 is the basis for all operations against them. Yet, how few 

 insects have been carefully and thoroughly studied. The 

 absence of knowledge concerning some particular habit often 

 results in failure to cope with the insect, while the absence of 

 theories concerning the home relations of insects often leads 

 to faulty recommendations which may cause loss in one way 

 or another. If economic entomology was on a broad biological 



