1891.) Biological Work of American Experiment Stations. 235 
a proper arrangement with respect to assistance, separate and 
conjoint, in the two departments. Substantially the same may 
be said of the entomological work.” 
The Illinois station is fortunate, indeed, to have available the 
results of the long years of exhaustive work of the laboratory 
force, but for most of us there is no such reserve fund of knowl- 
edge upon which to draw, and if the foundation is obtained we 
must build it ourselves. 
There are other advantages to accrue from such an undertak- 
ing besides those to be gained in the direct prosecution of the 
economic work. One of the greatest of these will be found in the 
stimulus given to natural history studies. A well-known bot- 
anist recently stated that nothing so stimulates the study of a 
group of plants as a good monograph. In the same way mono- 
graphs or descriptive catalogues of the organisms of a ‘locality 
or state are a great help to local naturalists; and there can be no 
doubt that the existence of volumes similar in plan to that of Ridg- 
way’s Illinois birds, treating of the mammals, birds, shells, insects, 
and plants, would greatly increase the number of students of nat- 
ural history. We can all remember how eagerly, in our boyhood 
days, we attempted to get help from books in determining the spe- 
cies, as well as the habits and histories, of the organisms about us. 
A large proportion of farmers’ boys are born naturalists, and it is 
only because they receive no encouragement and help that so 
many of them grow away from their early love. It is needless to 
say that by so increasing the number of nature students the sta- 
tions would be doing a great service, not only to the agricultural 
community, but also to themselves,—to the former by adding to 
the enjoyment of rural life, to the intelligence of the farming com- 
munity, to the mastery of the farmer’s profession ; and to the latter 
by increasing the number of trained observers, to whom experi- 
ments and observations may safely be trusted. 
Of the methods to be employed in such surveys little need be 
said at this time. They will necessarily vary with the circum- 
stances and the organizing skill: of the individual in charge. 
But an indispensable requisite in all cases will be that a system of 
record and arrangement be adopted that is permanent, expansible, 
