194 
JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY 
[Vol. 16 
take up the first question which is ‘‘How can the instructor maintain a 
vital interest on the part of students who are taking a beginning course 
in Economic Entomology as a required subject in agricultural courses, 
but who have no intention of specializing in Entomology?” 
Mr. D. M. De Long: Those of us in agricultural colleges face this 
problem more than those who are training entomologists alone. The 
students come into the entomological course, which they are required to 
take as a part of the agricultural course, with an indifferent attitude. 
That must be overcome and you must get the student into a receptive 
attitude first. 
Now that is accomplished easily by presenting to the student the 
importance of entomology, its importance in agriculture, and in showing, 
in addition to that, what is being done in the United States at the present 
time, in the big entomological problems. When you have finished 
stating these things to the student, he is in a state of mind to accept 
anything that you want to teach him in entomology. 
Furthermore, if a man is going to take one term or one semester’s 
work in entomology, is it wise to spend most of that time to give him 
details of antenna or leg structures, or is it better to take up economic 
entomology as such? 
If one teaches economic entomology he must have an acquaintance 
with field problems, because you cannot teach only from a book. It is a 
subject that must be taught from field experience and observations, and 
the student must be taught to see the field problems so that when he 
goes back to the farm or takes up county agent work, he can face field 
problems as he finds them. 
I feel, then, that in the beginning course in economic entomology we 
must sacrifice the first training that a man should perhaps have in 
entomology, in going ahead with his profession, for the ninety-eight 
per cent who are taking it, to benefit themselves in their genera] work in 
agriculture and later to give a man the special training that he needs in 
the field of entomology if he intends to follow it as a profession. 
President J. G. Sanders: The next question is “How can students 
be helped to see the work of insects and their control under field con¬ 
ditions when the instructor has them only at a time of year when many 
important species are not active?” 
This is one of the most serious problems that the instructor in economic 
entomology has to deal with in the northern institutions. 
Mr. H. T. Fernald: Had I felt called upon to speak on the first 
question of the question box, I should have said that there was a phase 
