10 



environment, and make the best possible use of this knowledge in their 

 attempts to destroy insects or hold them in check. 



Last year the chairman of the board of selectmen in a Massachusetts 

 town refused to use any of the public money for the protection of the 

 trees along the streets from the canker worms, because the idea of fight- 

 ing insects was "agin natur." This year that same man's apple trees 

 are as bare of leaves as though a fire had run through his orchard, and 

 therefore I am of the opinion that it will be "agin natur" for that man 

 to gather a crop of fruit from his trees this fall. 



The establishment of agricultural experiment stations by the General 

 Government in 1888, with entomologists in a large proportion of them, 

 gave a wonderful impetus to the study and development of economic 

 entomology in this country. At first it was thought that because of 

 the lack of a sufficient number of well-trained and experienced ento- 

 mologists to fill these positions very poor work would be done until 

 a sufficient time had elapsed for young men to become educated and 

 trained in this line, when they would crowd the more inferior material 

 to the wall. To me it has been a matter of pleasure and pride to see 

 the young men coming to the front so rapidly, filling these places so 

 satisfactorily, and publishing bulletins and other papers of such rare 

 value. I am deeply impressed with the idea that unless those of us 

 who are older and have been in the work for a long time look well to 

 our laurels we may soon find ourselves crowded up against the dis- 

 placement wall and younger and perhaps more competent men standing 

 ready to take our places. Nevertheless, it is a great pleasure to me to 

 help and encourage any promising and modest young man who is 

 thoroughly in earnest in the study of entomology. 



In this connection I can not too highly commend the course taken by 

 some of our economic entomologists who in connection with their other 

 work make a systematic study of some family or group of insects or 

 study thoroughly the anatomy or embryology of one or more species. 

 Even a fragment of such study will some time prove useful, since it 

 forms a link in the great chain of human knowledge, and each link forged 

 into it tends to strengthen and make it more useful. I have no sympa- 

 thy with those who work only in one restricted field till they become 

 so narrow that they can appreciate nothing except what is found in 

 their own extremely narrow groove. The entomologist who broadens 

 the horizon of his observations becomes better able to grasp and com- 

 prehend the great problems presented to him. 



With the discovery of insecticides came the necessity for various 

 kinds of apparatus for the application of them, and here again there has 

 been an evolution which is still going on. Many of the spraying pumps, 

 nozzles, and other apparatus first placed on sale are no longer in use, 

 but greatly improved kinds are on the market, and investigations are 

 still giving us improvement after improvement, some of which, unfortun- 

 ately, are no improvement at all. On the whole, however, the insecticide 

 apparatus of to day is greatly superior to that of a decade ago. 



