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INTRODUCTION. 
Carbondale. Jackson Co., Illinois, i 
December 29,1877. } 
To Hon. D. B. Gillham , 
President of the State Board of Agriculture. 
Dear Sir:— Sec. 2 of the act of the legislature of Illinois, entitled 
‘•An act in relation to the State Board of Agriculture, and approved 
May 25th 1877, makes it the duty of the State Entomologist to report 
annually instead of biennially, and that this report be made to the 
State Board of Agriculture instead of directly to the Governor of the 
State as, formerly. At least, such is my interpretation of said act so 
far as it relates to the State Entomologist, and this view is held by 
His Excellency ,the Governor, as I infer from the fact that he has in¬ 
formed me, in answer to my letter of inquiry in reference to the sub- 
iect that my report should be made to the State Board of Agriculture 
J iA compliance, therefore, with said act I have the honor to present 
herewith my second report as State Entomologist, and first annua; 
report to the State Board of Agriculture of the State of Illinois. 
This will form the seventh in the series of reports by State Ento¬ 
mologists, viz : One by Mr. Walsh, four by Dr. Le Baron and two by 
the present incumbent. The title I adopted for my last report is as 
follows • “ Sixth Report of the State Entomologist on the JSoxious and Bene- 
ficial Insects of the State of Illinois ” This form I think, should here¬ 
after be retained, changing only the number ; the reports will then be 
^uniform in style. I numbered my former report Sixth m order* to 
- include the one made by Mr. Walsh, which had been omitted in the 
numbering adopted by Dr. Le Baron, which applied only to those 
made by himself. _ j 
I am happy to be able to state to you that during the past year as 
3 was the case in 1876, the agriculturists of our state have generally 
T been less troubled than usual by injurious insects and as a gener- 
• al rule crops have been more than ordinarily abundant, and even 
where there are exceptions to this general statement but a compara- 
~ tively small percentage of the loss has been occasioned by insects. In 
some parts of the State, particularly in the southern section, the Hes¬ 
sian fly made its apoearance last season in limited numbers, and un¬ 
less the farmers generally adopted the precautionary measures neces- 
?sary to counteract them, which is very doubtful, we may expect, if the 
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