Report of the State Entomologist 221 



I regret that the pressure and confinement of office work allows 

 me but little opportunity for field observations and studies. Could 

 a reasonable amount of field work be done, either by myself or an 

 efficient assistant, a;nd so distributed over the year as to cover the 

 period of insect activity, it would, beyond question, add materially 

 to the value of the service that this department may render to the 

 state. The Entomological Division of the United States Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, at Washington, while equipped with an office 

 corps of a chief and eight skilled assistants, draughtsman, type- 

 writer, and clerks, has also the aid of seven field assistants, located 

 in six of the States. The entomologists of our state agricultural 

 colleges and agricultural experiment stations, have, in several 

 instances, a trained assistant, or a class of advanced students, at 

 their command, who are rendering excellent service. The value of 

 the work now being done in applied entomology, hardly needs to 

 be referred to. Its results are apparent to all and have obtained 

 the highest recognition. The agriculturist, in this time of wide- 

 spread agricultural depression, appreciates as never before the aid 

 that it is prepared to offer him, and srladly avails himself of the 

 proffered assistance. The measure of what the state may do in this 

 direction will be in proportion to the amount of study that it shall 

 authorize. The field is so broad and the objects that it embraces so 

 innumerable, that it can never be exhausted, or even an approach 

 made to a complete garnering of its stores. The insect world, 

 existing largely upon cultivated products which are essential to the 

 life or well-being of man, is brought into such intimate relations in 

 its state of continual antagonism to him, that it may be safely 

 asserted that of no other branch of the animal kingdom is the study 

 of equal utilitarian value. 



With direct reference to my own official work : there is no doubt 

 but that its value to the state could be more than doubled by the 

 assignment to the Office, of a skilled assistant or one who might 

 soon be trained to serve in that capacity. It is neither econom- 

 ical nor just to the department, that the entomologist should be 

 obliged to devote • so large a portion of his time to simple clerical 

 duties, while there remain important studies to complete and 

 arrange for presentation in such form that they may accomplish the 

 purpose for which they were undertaken, and others, that he is 

 desirous of entering upon at the earliest opportunity. 



In the Appendix, will be found a paper read by the Entomologist 

 before the Western New York Horticultural Society at its January 



29 



