716 HINTS FOR THE PROMOTION OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY. 
with no insignificant portion of the author’s own investigations, 
chiefly in embryology. 
Having now shown, by a hasty survey of the past, the gradual 
progress of our science, let us consult in regard to what is to be 
done to perfect the structure, the foundations of which are thus 
securely laid, and above all, what is necessary to popularize and 
utilize the great mass of information which has been obtained by 
so much labor. 
Of all the branches of zoology, there is none more intimately 
connected with the great agricultural interests than entomology ;* 
and yet from the vast number of objects involved in the study, 
many of which, on account of their small size, are with difficulty 
recognized by the untrained observer, and also from the compli- 
cation of metamorphosis and habits such as are seen in no other 
department of the animal kingdom, there is no branch of natural 
history which requires for its elucidation greater industry, or 
higher powers of scientific analysis. For the same reasons, none 
of the inferior animals are so well fitted to elude and resist human 
control. We may therefore expect the practical application of the 
abstract truths and facts contained in the science to be a task of 
more than ordinary difficulty, requiring the assistance of the most - 
learned students and the most ingenious investigators. 
I may, perhaps, be accused of uttering a very vapid truism, 
when I assert that before any science is capable of rational prac- 
tical application, the science must be well advanced, or at least 
its general principles and methods of investigation firmly estab- 
lished ; and further that the application must be made by those 
who are fully informed as regards the science. Yet, by neglect of 
this apparent axiom, we have seen that the great state of New 
York expended a sum of money, almost sufficient to print all the - 
useful books on entomology since published in the United States, 
upon one quarto volume, which is a monument only of presump- 
tion and ignorance. 
I may be excused, then, for mentioning first those things which 
in my opinion will contribute to a more rapid advance in the de- 
oe Gen entire sum expended by Congress, or “4 our various State Legislatures for 
urpose (from 1776-1869) cannot exceed $90,000 to 100,000, or about $1,000 a year. Yet 
ag ausld amage et: by insects within the ie of the United States cannot be less 
than ($300,000,000) three hundred millions of dollars. Am. Entom. psi Bot. ii, 109. 
Napoleon, at the rein of his a a inflicted more damage on a nation 
Ibid., ii, 367. 
