190 NEBRASKA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



prevent our gaining a complete history of the insect under investigation. 

 As much as we now know about some of the insect enemies most com- 

 mon to the country, there is still more to be learned. "Among the 

 first hundred of our most injurious insects, there are those which we 

 only know in their final stage, and there is not the naturalist among us 

 who could identify them in their larval or their pupal state; while at 

 least one-half of the number could not be determined in the egg." 

 Such a confession is certainly humiliating to the entomologist, but 

 nevertheless it is a strong argument in favor of continued investigation 

 of the lives of insects. Until the several stages of an insect's existence 

 are known, together with the conditions under which they occur, it is 

 quite evident that the entomologist is unprepared to point out the par- 

 ticular phase in which the insect is most vulnerable, and therefore the 

 most readily combated. 



All of these studies are tedious to say the least, and often involve 

 earnest, long continued, and painful cloister work with the microscope 

 as an aid. Other needed information can only be gained out of doors, 

 in the field, orchard, and forest, where the observer must faithfully 

 pursue his investigations during sunshine and rain as well as by day 

 and night. So very many are the details that must often be taken 

 into consideration ere the life history of an insect enemy is sufficiently 

 complete to be of much use in its repulsion, that years of labor are re- 

 quired by the united efforts of several observers. The number of 

 persons who are at present devoting their entire time, or the greater 

 portion thereof, to the subject of economic entomology in the United 

 States is less than four dozen — a ridiculously small number indeed, 

 in comparison with the amount of work to be done, the vast territory 

 to be studied, and the lead which our country takes in the line and 

 extent of its agricultural interests over that of other countries of the 

 globe. Such a condition of affairs is certainly to be deplored, when 

 we take into consideration the efforts that are put forth and the vast 

 sums of money expended in other directions where the losses sustained 

 do not begin to compare with those resulting from insect depredations. 

 All that I ask is that an equal amount of interest be accorded the sub- 

 ject of economic entomology. 



