88 
being divided among; different stations and duplicated at three or more of them 
not only divides the labor and the responsibility, but makes the results much more 
authoritative. The same is true regarding the test of insecticide machinery. The 
various devices for spraying or for the mechanical destruction of insects which in 
some cases are so expensive that it is impracticable for each station to secure an 
outfit, while if they are taken as a gratuity from the manufacturers there is sufficient 
obligation on the part of the station to make the result of less value than where the 
test can be made with entire freedom from such obligation. 
A phase of the station work which does not make any material show, but seems to 
me to bo of as great importance as anything that we undertake, is the attention 
to correspondence regarding insects. Every letter of inquiry regarding injurious 
insects or asking the determination of any forms should receive most careful atten- 
tion, and replies be written with the same care that would be devoted to an article 
for publication. In many cases such letters may pass from hand to hand to be used 
by the neighbor or different parties, and indeed where referring to insects of interest 
in a particular locality, they are very likely to be handed to some local paper and may 
thus get a much wider circulation than the writer anticipates. Moreover, a careful 
reply to one letter is very likely to encourage further correspondence, and in this 
way the entomologist will secure a correspondent who may be of very great service 
in keeping him informed as to the insects of importance in that locality and who 
would become a center of information for the neighborhood in which he lives. A 
personal letter is much more likely to be carefully read and its suggestions followed 
than a general note published in a general way, so that this personal correspondence 
may be more effective in bringing about active adoption of remedies than a wide 
distribution of information in published reports. 
The question of what to publish and how to publish the results of investigations 
is often a very perplexing one. The great majority of the people whom we wish to 
serve have very meager knowledge of the structure and habits of insects, and great 
pains must be taken not to bury our information in articles written in language 
beyond their reach. On the other hand, we will fail in one great purpose of our 
work if we simplify to such an extent as to not present the evidences on which con- 
clusions may be founded. The reader should be left with some more definite knowl- 
edge of the subject in hand than he possessed before, and if possible stimulated to 
observation, thought, and experiment for himself. The plan of writing plain, un tech- 
nical articles, but with every effort to secure accuracy and clearness of expression 
for the general bulletins, and of publishing more technical matter necessary for the 
use of station workers in such journals or bulletins as will reach especially the 
scientific workers, seems an excellent one. Aside from these methods, we must adopt 
all possible means, such as personal work in institutes, notes in agricultural papers, 
etc., to reach the greatest possible number. 
Entomological work has made gratifying progress, but results so far gained are, 
I am confident, but a slight indication of what may be accomplished by persistent, 
faithful, and well-directed effort. 
