244 
JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY 
[Voi. 17 
be on a sufficiently large scale to justify its existence. The simplest 
type of a manufacturing venture would be for one man to make the 
material, assuming it could be done on a one man scale. The amount 
of business would have to be sufficiently large to pay this man for his 
time and efforts and such pay, as well as all other charges, must come 
out of the price of the material. This becomes increasingly significant 
in the case of larger organizations. 
It is not always an easy task to convince directors of corporations 
that they are justified in authorizing considerable expense for develop¬ 
ment which will of necessity be gradual. A new discovery in the in¬ 
secticide world is not immediately adopted. In fact, entomologists 
have so much work to do, and it is so specialized, that they are not always 
able to keep fully informed as regards the new developments in their 
own profession. And if this is true, how less likely is it that dealers 
will purchase the new material—and the local dealer is often the over¬ 
looked limiting factor in the use of an insecticide. 
The manufacturer must make a profit. Otherwise he ceases to exist. 
He must make a profit sufficient to overcome not only the manufacturing- 
difficulties but expenses attendant upon selling and distributing his 
product. After the manufacturer comes the first purchaser; if there is 
a distributor he receives a profit; the jobber receives a larger profit and 
the retail dealer the largest of all. Retail dealers as a class do not like 
to handle agricultural insecticides for less than a 20% profit. All of 
these items must be included in the price of the prospective insecticide. 
Finally, having estimated the probable price to the consumer of the 
new insecticide compared with the old one, under similar conditions as 
to the quantity, season, method of distribution, etc. Other queries 
arise. Will entomologists acquaint themselves with it? Will the 
consumer buy it ? How much money will it take for advertising and 
other educational work to interest the consumer? Will the dealer 
handle it, so that the consumer can purchase when he wants it? The 
expense of this type of work must also come out of the ultimate price. 
These remarks are not to be interpreted in any way as discouraging 
the search for new insecticides. On the contrary, it is an effort to 
indicate some economic factors, consideration of which should assist in 
the logical development of new insecticides. 
This discusssion will also help to explain why the entomologist’s 
estimates of the probable ultimate cost of a new product almost always 
falls far below the final cost to the consumer of the manufactured article. 
It may also put to final rest that old school suspicion that all insecticide 
