52 
JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY 
[Vol. 16 
usually received more or less impractical advice. The spruce bud worm, the forest 
tent caterpillar and the larch sawfly are major insect problems as well as the control 
of pests attacking freshly cut timber, particularly pulp wood. The general effects 
of poisoning forest areas should be investigated. The method presumably can be 
used only to a limited extent. A study of ecological relations and the development 
of improved silvicultural methods is advised. 
All of us who are working in the various phases of entomology recog¬ 
nize that economic entomology exists for the express purpose of organ¬ 
izing and directing man’s fight against his insect enemies. It is ap¬ 
parent to anyone acquainted with agricultural conditions that if it were 
not for the efforts of the economic entomologist in devising and apply¬ 
ing measures for the control of injurious pests, the chance of success for 
agricultural operations would be even more uncertain than at present. 
We must, of course, admit that there are still many uncontrollable 
insect pests, but when we consider the large number of species that 
can be sucessfully controlled we should feel decidedly encouraged. 
Results always speak for themselves! Therefore no one can doubt 
that the entomologist is using every means in his power to solve the 
problems of both the farmer and the horticulturist. His efforts along 
this line have been rewarded with success; remarkable success when the 
odds against which he is fighting are taken into consideration. A large 
proportion of our extremely serious farm and orchard insects can be 
more or less satisfactorily controlled. In this connection we think of 
such outstanding entomological successes as the control of the Hessian 
fly by a slight change in time of planting, the development of arsenical 
poisons for the control of the Colorado potato beetle, of the use of lime 
sulphur and miscible oils for the San Jose scale, the development of 
poisoned baits for grasshoppers and cutworms, the power sprayer which 
made possible a satisfactory attack on the codling moth, the high power 
sprayer combined with special nozzles for protecting our town and 
park trees from the ravages of such unwelcome guests as the gipsy moth 
and the elm leaf beetle. And so we might go on enumerating mile¬ 
stone after milestone in our rapid advance in the control of farm and 
horticultural insects. 
But the entomologist is not yet satisfied. He continues to bend his 
efforts toward the improvement of control measures and toward the 
discovery and application of means for checking the ravages of those 
insects which cannot be controlled at present. Think of the time and 
energy that some of our best minds are devoting to the gipsy moth, the 
European com borer, the Japanese beetle, and the Mexican bean weevil 
problems. Without question such efforts must be rewarded. 
