OBITUARY NOTICES. 
413 
to Chicago, where he did journeyman printing, drew portraits, 
acted as a reporter for one of the papers, and finally became 
permanently attached to the office of the Prairie Farmer , the 
leading agricultural journal of the West. In 1864 he en¬ 
listed in one of the Illinois regiments, and served to the close 
of the war, returning then to his agricultural editorial work. 
While still a mere boy he became greatly interested in 
the study of insects. He showed me once a note book which 
he had started at the age of nine or ten years, in which he 
intended to describe the transformations of all the insects of 
the neighborhood, and in this book were drawings which in¬ 
dicated a most unusual artistic talent. This interest in 
insects, in studying their habits and drawing their different 
stages, lasted through his life, and eventually became his 
great work. He continued drawing while at school on the 
continent, and developed so great a talent that one of his 
instructors advised him strongly to become a professional 
artist. 
While on the farm in Illinois his attention was first drawn 
to the damage which insects do to cultivated crops, and he 
subsequently owed his position on the Prairie Farmer to 
articles which he had written and handed in, in which he 
suggested new remedies for crop pests. As an attache of this 
great agricultural newspaper he attended the gatherings of 
farmers, and particularly the meetings of the prominent Il¬ 
linois Horticultural Society. In this way he became ac¬ 
quainted with the leaders in agriculture and horticulture, and 
made the acquaintance of Benjamin D. Walsh, a man of 
remarkable character and great ability, of English univer¬ 
sity education, who was in 1867 appointed the first State 
entomologist of Illinois. Walsh exercised a great influence 
upon Riley’s future. Together they founded and edited the 
American Entomologist , and when, in 1868, the State of Mis¬ 
souri passed a law providing for a State entomologist, through 
the influence of Walsh and prominent Illinois agriculturists, 
led by the value of the work which he had already done, 
Riley was chosen to fill the place. 
