55 
sects lived upon the particular farm crop (or plant) which bad been in- 
jured. This information obtained, with no knowledge whatever of 
classification, he would be able, by means of the plates, to find the cul- 
prit in a very little time, even if the figures were not sufficiently accu- 
rate for the determination of fine specific differences. Having learned 
the species, or even an allied species, reference from plate to text would 
put him in possession of the main facts in the history of the insect, time 
of appearance of different stages of the pest, and when and how to com- 
bat it. And if the information given was not sufficient he could make 
use of the references to other works there quoted. 
This is, briefly, the manner in which the work was intended to be 
used, and, as it contains over 6,000 figures of insects more or less in- 
jurious (or beneficial) to American agriculture, I may repeat that noth- 
ing like it has ever before been attempted, and that its completion and 
publication would have served to vastly popularize the science of ento- 
mology in the United States. But while its production is a marvel of 
patience, persistence, and self-sacrificing iudustry, in the twenty years 
its author was engaged upon it, he might have so systematized the work 
of its production — calling others to his assistance to relieve himself of 
the mere drudgery — and so have organized the plan of publication that 
it would have been completed and placed in every large library of the 
land while he was yet entomologist of the Department of Agriculture. 
The point has been made tbat some of Mr. Glover's figures are not 
altogether accurate, if not in some instances badly drawn. The criti- 
cism is sometimes a just one, although in their entirety the drawings 
will bear favorable comparison with similar entomological illustrations 
of the times. One point must be admitted, that the earlier plates are 
much better than the later ones, as will readily be seen by careful com- 
parison. That this is due to two causes there can be little doubt: Some- 
what impaired, or gradually failing eyesight in the first place (the more 
positive cause), and less care in the second place, through impatience 
to keep up with incoming material. The completion of two plates a 
month, "out of office hours," and in the hours of daylight, with all the 
work of making the drawings before undertaking tne engraving, and 
coloring six or eight sets of the proofs afterwards, should be regarded as 
expeditious work for a man sixty years of age. Mr. Glover himself re- 
gretted having made certain of the plates (early ones in the Lepidoptera), 
chiefly taken from Smith and Abbott's Insects of Georgia, and from a 
few later works. Some of the far western Orthoptera, too, w r hich were 
figured from alcoholic specimens, and colored from descriptions, or 
from other figures, and sometimes from notes made by the collector, are 
not wholly satisfactory, although readily recognizable by those who 
have seen the insects in life. Fault has likewise been found with his 
smaller figures, many of which should have been enlarged to show 
specific differences in a marked degree, natural size being indicated in 
the usual manner or by a second figure. All very minute species were 
properly enlarged, and are, therefore, more valuable. 
