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to the undue multiplication of injurious insects than that of North 
America, and which, moreover, seems to act as a barrier against the 
importation of foreign destructive species, the actually smaller num- 
ber of iujurious species and the vastly greater familiarity with all 
phases of the life-history of these species by all classes of the people, 
partly resulting from the older civilizatiou, partly from educational 
methods, and partly from the abundance of elementary and popular 
literature on questions of this character, the denser population and 
the resulting vastly smaller holdings in farms, the necessarily greatly 
diversified crops, the frequent rotation of crops, together with the 
clean and close cultivation necessitated by the small size of the hold- 
ings, and the cheaper and more abundant labor, have all resulted in a 
very different state of affairs regarding the damage which may be 
done by injurious insects. In summarizing these points, the Chief of 
the Agricultural Section of the Ministry of Agriculture of Prussia, in 
conversation with the writer last summer, argued that Germany does 
not need to employ general economic entomologists ; that its experi- 
ment stations seldom receive applications for advice on entomological 
topics. Special insects, it is true, occasionally spring into prominence; 
the Phylloxera is one of these, and in an emergency like the Phylloxera 
outbreak, the work is handled by special commissions. European 
nations, therefore, can afford to let the insect problem alone to a much 
greater extent than the United States, for the reason that it is of infinitely 
less importance with them than with us. The most simple remedies, 
such as hand-picking, together with a rigid enforcement of the public 
regulations regarding hand destruction, usually suffice to keep injuri- 
ous insects in check. Nevertheless insect outbreaks do occasionally 
occur, and there is a certain percentage of loss every year from the 
work of injurious species. The results obtained in the United States, 
where the number of native injurious species is much greater than in 
Europe, and where we have in addition to deal with a host of imported 
species — in short, where the fighting of insect foes has become an abso- 
lute necessity — have, however, acted to a certain degree as incentives, 
not only to other countries which labor under the same climatic dis- 
advantages as the United States, but even to a certain degree to 
European countries, where more thorough investigation of injurious 
insects by competent persons especially appointed for the purpose 
is gradually becoming thought worth while. 
In 1890, at the Agricultural Congress held at Vienna, resolutions 
were passed founding the so-called International Phytopathological 
Commission. The movement was an important one, particularly for 
European countries, and as work upon injurious insects forms a part of 
the object of the commission the resolutions organizing it may be 
given here: 
1. Whereas the numerous diseases and other enemies of plants are a constant 
source of damage, and sometimes even occasion the greatest losses to proprietors 
