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as it is in human power to do so, of this insect burden, which is doing 

 more than any other to crush them. • 



" In the present case, it is not merely the question of saving to the Na- 

 tion, in future, such vast sums of money as this insect has taken from the 

 producers of some of the Western States — amounting during the past few 

 years to nearly a hundred million dollars; it is a question affecting the 

 welfare of whole commonwealths on this side of the Mississippi, and the 

 ultimate settlement of a vast tract of country extending from the base of 

 the Rocky Mountains eastward, to which settlement the ravages of the 

 locust in question offer the most serious obstacle." 



A CONFERENCE OF THE GOVERNORS 



of Missouri, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, Minnesota, and Dakota, 

 was held at Omaha last October, to consider this all-important locust pro- 

 blem, and I lay a copy of the official report before you. The conference 

 memorialized Congress on the subject, and asked for a Commission of five, 

 to consist of three entomologists and two practical men of experience with 

 the locusts, to be appointed by the Chief of the Geological and Geographi- 

 cal Survey of the Territories, and approved by the Secretary of the Inte- 

 rior, the duty of which Commission it shall be to examine into the history, 

 nature and habits of the insects, and to suggest means of destroying them, 

 and remedies against their ravages ; and it asks, for this purpose, that the 

 sum of $25,000 be added to that part of the sundry civil appropriation bill 

 providing for said survey of the Territories in order to pay the expenses 

 and salaries of such Commission. 



The National Agricultural Congress, at its meeting in Philadelphia last 

 September, unanimously prayed for similar action, and many prominent 

 agricultural and horticultural societies in the West have done likewise. I 

 have for three years pleaded for some such national legislation, and let us 

 hope that the demands being made will not go unheeded. The time is 

 most opportune, for a Commission created this winter would have an 

 opportunity, that may not occur again for years, of studying and experi- 

 menting on the young insects from Texas on the South and Missouri on 

 the East, in addition to their investigations in the extreme Northwest. 



The study of plants having always been a favorite one with naturalists, 

 the rough botanical work of naming and classifying them has, in Europe, 

 been pretty well accomplished, there being scarcely any new forms to be 

 discovered, except, perhaps, among the Cryptogamia. Botanical study 

 has there, as a consequence, legitimately turned to the structure and func- 

 tions of the different parts, and our European friends begin to look down, 

 perhaps a little too proudly, on systematic work, which is not less essen- 

 tial than the other, and must always precede it. As Americans we 

 have enough to do yet to master the mass of material, and, while not 

 neglecting anatomy and physiology, must needs study the forms, their 

 development and affinities. Thus the Flora of California, the first part 



