142 



NATUKAL SCIENCE NEWS. 



amount Prof. Riley paid his assist- 

 ant and traveling expenses. He 

 also paid for the beautiful illustra- 

 tions of the reports, which illus- 

 trations were drawn by himself. 

 The original edition of the reports 

 have been long exhausted, and 

 any copies now bring very high 

 prices. Charles Darwin, the fa- 

 mous naturalist, gave them the 

 highest encomiums. In connec- 

 tion with Mr. B. B. Walsh, Act- 

 ing State Entomologist of Illinois, 

 Prof. Riley established the Ameri- 

 can Entomologist about this time. 



In 1873 a bill was passed creat- 

 ing the United States Entomolog- 

 ic Commission, with Prof. Riley 

 as chief, and Dr. A. S. Packard, 

 Jr., and Cyrus Thomas as associ- 

 ates. This commission was de- 

 signed to cope with the Rocky 

 Mountain locust, then doing great 

 damage, and in the five years of 

 its existence published five large, 

 fully illustrated reports, besides 

 seven bulletins, all the work being 

 done by the three members. 



Since this period, with an inter- 

 mission of two years, Prof. Riley 

 held the position of United'. States 

 Entomologist, wwich he resigned 

 a few months ago. His work at 

 Washington fully upheld the 

 promise of his early years. In 

 carrying on the operations of his 

 department, working night and 

 day, year after year, without rest, 

 he nearly ruined his constitution. 

 To the National Museum he pre- 

 sented his magnificent private col- 

 lections of insects, representing 

 the labor of twenty-five years. 

 With it as a nucleus he built up a 

 collection unsurpassed in America. 



Applied entomology or econom- 

 ic entomology, as it is sometimes 

 called, was his specialty, and he 

 in some sense was the founder of 

 that science. Space is not at 

 command to even summarize his 

 work. After his studies on the 

 Western locust problem, he took 

 up the animals affecting stock in 

 the lower Mississippi, those affect- 

 ing the hop industry and cranberry 

 growers, and in all those lines he 

 did useful and practical work, ame- 

 liorating greatly the troubles or 

 the farmer. 



In the past few years, two of his 

 studies have produced epoch-mak- 

 ing results. One is his famous 

 emulsion of kerosene oil; milk or 

 soap solution being the emulsify- 

 ing agent. Having found that 

 this was an infallible insecticide, 

 he had to devise means for apply- 

 ing it, and invented the "cyclone," 

 "eddy chamber," or "Riley sys- 

 tem" of nozzle for spraying it up- 



on trees. Another of his achieve- 

 ments was the introduction of the 

 Australian ladybird, Vedalia car- 

 dinalis, into California, to destroy 

 the white scale, which was then 

 ruining the orange groves. The 

 result was simply magical. Since 

 then the insect has been introduc- 

 ed elsewhere. It is interesting to 

 note that other attempts of the 

 same sort that have been made in 

 California, against other insects, 

 either against his advice or with- 

 out his indorsement, have not had 

 the same success. His discoveries 

 in relation to the phylloxera alone 

 were enough to give him inter- 

 national renown, and his recem- 

 mendations have been followed by 

 grape growers in all parts of the 

 world. He was a good volumin- 

 ous writer; a bibliography of his 

 writings, published by the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, five years 

 ago, showing over 15,000 titles. 



It would take much space to 

 give the simple list of the honors 

 in the way of medals and diplomas 

 honorary memberships of societies 

 and the like which have been 

 showered upon him. One of his 

 greatest honors was the gold medal 

 presented him by France in 1873, 

 in appreciation of his services in 

 the study of the phylloxera. His 

 work will [live. His organization 

 of the Entomological Department 

 of the United States government 

 will be responsible for'much of the 

 value and utility in the future, and 

 lands as far apart as Egypt, the 

 Sandwich Islands, California and 

 France are today reaping the ben- 

 efits of his work. His resignation 

 from the Department of Agricul- 

 ture was commented upon as a se- 

 rious loss, brought about by his 

 absolute need for rest and by oth- 

 er causes affecting his professional 

 work. It was believed that the 

 vacation which he at last gave 

 himself might be productive of the 

 most important results to human- 

 ity in the direction of his favorite 

 science. 



As a lecturer his reputation was 

 extended. He has held appoint- 

 ments as lecturer on entomology 

 at Cornell University, Kansas 

 State Agricultural College, Mis- 

 souri State University and the St. 

 Louis Washington University. He 

 has also lectured before the Boston 

 Lowell Institute and the Brooklyn 

 Institute. He edited the fifth 

 volume of the Reports on theParis 

 Exposition of 1889, a work of 

 nearly a thousand pages, with 

 text, figures, and plates, a work 

 containing a mine of valuable in- 

 formation on agriculture and ag- 



ricultural education, not only of 

 foreign countries, but of our own. 

 So much of his writing was in the 

 form of monographs and addresses 

 and it contained so many titles, 

 that it cannot be summarized here. 

 — Scientific American. 



Directions for Collecting Min- 

 erals. 



GENERAL REMARKS. 



The value of a mineral collec- 

 tion depends largely upon the 

 quality of the specimens and upon 

 the completeness of the informa- 

 tion concerning them. A bruis- 

 ed or scratched specimen, or a 

 broken crystal, has little to recom- 

 mend it, and a mineral of un- 

 known locality or undefined asso- 

 ciations can be admitted to a cabi- 

 net only under protest. With re- 

 gard to any given species, the geo- 

 graphical and geological distribu- 

 tion is an important fact; and it is 

 therefor desirable, in each locality, 

 to collect every variety which can 

 be found. Specimens which 

 would be worth little by them- 

 selves become valuable when stud- 

 ied in relation to others, and a 

 common mineral, found under un- 

 usual circumstances, may have ex- 

 ceptional interest. 



WHERE TO LOOK FOR MINERALS. 



The best field for a collector is 

 always that which has been well 

 opened, such as a mine, a quarry, 

 a railroad cut, etc. Fresh expos- 

 ures of unweathered rock yield the 

 best specimens. In prospecting, 

 however, where no work has been 

 previously done, it is desirable to 

 get below the weathered rock sur- 

 face to the fresh material beneath. 

 Sometimes nature assists in this 

 direction, as in ravines and aJong 

 the bases of cliffs where, in early 

 spring, rock falls leave clean ex- 

 posures. The recent talus at the 

 foot of a cliff affords a good field 

 for examination. 



IMPLEMENTS USED IN COLLECTING. 



The tools used in collecting min- 

 erals are few in number. The 

 first and most indispensible tool is 

 a hammer. It should be of well 

 tempered steel, weighing about 

 two pounds, with the striking face 

 square and the cutting edge hav- 

 ing the same direction as the han- 

 dle. The handle should be made 

 of good hickory and wedged into 

 the head with iron wedges. Afoot 

 scale, divided into inches, marked 

 on the handle, is desirable. 



