32 



SCIENCE 



[Vol. XVII. No. 415 



calling, is a mere incident of the new positions created; yet 

 we may expect marked improvement from year to year in 

 this direction. Without being invidious, I would cite 

 those of Professor Gillette, on his spraying experiments and 

 on the plum curculio and plum gouger, as models of what 

 such bulletins should be. 



Although the resolution offered at our last meeting by 

 Professor Cook, to the effect that purely descriptive matter 

 should be excluded from the station bulletins, met with no 

 favor, but was laid on the table by the general association, I 

 am in full sympathy with this position, and am strongly of 

 the opinion that in the ordinary bulletins such purely tech- 

 nical and descriptive matter should be reduced to the neces- 

 sary minimum consistent with clearness of statement and 

 accuracy, and that if it is desired, on the part of the station 

 entomologists, to issue technical and descriptive papers, a 

 separate series of bulletins were better instituted for this 

 class of matter. 



Finally, for results which it is desired to get promptly be- 

 fore the people, the agricultural press is at our disposal; and, 

 so far as the entomological work of the Department of Agri- 

 culture is concerned, the periodical bulletin. Insect Life, was 

 established for this purpose. Its columns are open to all 

 station workers ; and I would here appeal to the members of 

 the a,ssociation to help make it, as far as ])ossible, national, 

 by sending brief notes and digests of their work as it pro- 

 gresses. Hitherto we have been unable to make as much 

 effort in this direction as we desired ; but in future it is our 

 hope to make the bulletin, as far as possible, a national 

 medium, through which the results of work done in all 

 parts of the country may quickly be put on record, and dis- 

 tributed not only to all parts of our own country, but to all 

 parts of the world. 



The rapid growth and development of the national de- 

 partment, andthe multiplication of its divisions, have neces- 

 sitated special modes of publication, and rendered the annual 

 report almost an anachronism, so far as its pretends to he 

 what it at one time was, a pretty complete report of the 

 scientific and other work of the department. The attempts 

 which I have made through the proper authorities to get 

 Congress to order more pretentious monographic works in 

 quarto volume similar to those issued by other departments 

 of the government have not met with encouragement, and 

 in this direction many of the stations will, let us hope, be 

 able to do better. 



Co-operation. 



Every other subject that might be considered on this occa- 

 sion must be subordinate to the one great question, of co- 

 operation. With the large increase of actual workers in our 

 favorite field, distributed all over the country, the necessity 

 for some co-operation and co-ordination must be apparent to 

 every one. Just how this should be brought about, or in 

 what direction we may work toward it, will be for this asso- 

 ciation, in its deliberations, to decide. Nor will I venture 

 to anticipate the deliberations and conclusions of the special 

 committee appointed to take the matter into consideration, 

 beyond the statement that there are many directions in 

 which we can adopt plans for mutual benefit. Take, for 

 instance, the introduction and dissemination of paraisites. 

 How much greater will be the chance of success in any par- 

 ticular case if we have all the different station entomologists 

 interested in some specific plan to be carried out in co-opera- 

 tion with the national department, which ought to have 

 better facilities of introducing specimens to foreign countries 



or to different sections of our own country than any of the 

 State stations ! Let us suppose that the fruit growers of one 

 section of the country, comprising several States in area, 

 need the benefit in their warfare against any particularly 

 injurious insect of such natural enemy or enemies as are 

 known to help the fruit-growers of some other section. There 

 will certainly be much greater chances of success in the car- 

 rying-out of any scheme of introduction, if all the workers 

 in the one section may be called upon, through some central 

 or national body, to help in the introduction and disposition 

 of the desired material into the other section. Or take the 

 case of the boll- worm investigation already alluded to. The 

 chances of success would be much greater if the entomolo- 

 gists in all the States interested were to give some attention 

 to such lepidopterous larvae as are found to be affected with 

 contagious diseases, and to follow out some specific plan of 

 cultivating and transmitting them to the party or parties 

 with whom the actual trials are intrusted. The argument 

 applies with still greater force to any international efforts. 

 I need hardly multiply instances. There is, it is true, noth- 

 ing to prevent any individual station entomologist from 

 requesting co-operation of the other stations, nor is there any 

 thing to prevent the national department from doing like- 

 wise ; but in all organization results are more apt to flow 

 from the power to direct rather than from mere liberty to 

 request or to plead. The station entomologist may be en- 

 grossed in some line of research which he deems of more 

 importance to the people of his State, and may resent being 

 called upon to divert his energies; and, with no central or 

 national power to decide upon plans of co-operation for the 

 common weal, we are left to voluntary methods, mutually 

 devised; and it is here that this association can, it seems to 

 me, most fully justify its organization. And this brings me 

 to the question of the department and the stations. 



The Department of Agriculture and the State Stations. 



Immediately connected with the question of co-operation 

 is the relation of the National Department of Agriculture 

 and the State experiment stations. The relation, instead of 

 being vital and authoritative, is in reality a subordinate one. 

 Many persons interested in the advancement of agriculture 

 foresaw the advantage of having experiment stations attached 

 to the State agricultural colleges founded under the Morrill 

 Act of 1862; but I think that in the minds of most persons 

 the establishment of these stations implied some such con- 

 nection with the national department as that outlined in an 

 address on agricultural advancement in the United States, 

 which I had the honor to deliver in 1879 before the National 

 Agricultural Congress at Rochester, and in which the fol- 

 lowing language was used: — 



"In the light of the past history of the German experi- 

 mental stations and their work, or of that in our own State 

 of Connecticut, the expediency of purchasing an experimental 

 farm of large dimensions in the vicinity of Washington is 

 very questionable. There can be do doubt, however, of the 

 value of a good experimental station there, that shall have 

 its branches in every State of the Union. The results to flow 

 from such stations will not depend upon the number of acres 

 at command, and it will be far wiser and more economical 

 for the commissioner to make each agricultural college that 

 accepted the government endowment auxiliary to the na- 

 tional bureau; so that the experimental farm that is now, or 

 should be, connected with each of these institutions, might 

 be at its service, and under the general management of the 

 superintendent of the main station. There is reason to be 

 lieve that the directors of these colleges would cheerfully 

 have them constituted as experimental stations under the 



