28 
JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY 
[Vol. 11 
President R. A. Cooley: I will call on Mr. O’Kane to present 
his paper: 
TAKING STOCK 
By W. C. O’Kane, Durham, N. H. 
(Withdrawn for publication elsewhere.) 
President R. A. Cooley: I feel especially grateful to Professor 
O’Kane for this paper. It is before you for discussion. 
Mr. H. A. Gossard: I feel very grateful to Mr. O’Kane for as¬ 
sembling this information, together with charts. I have no doubt that 
it represents a great deal of truth. I was wondering, however, if 
Professor O’Kane didn’t feel sometimes as though he would like to turn 
aside his mathematical method of putting in those lines. For instance, 
suppose we come to such a question as gipsy moth control. If I were 
looking at the reports from an entomologist like Mr. Burgess, who had 
given a great deal of time to that insect, and to reports of two or three 
other entomologists, and I found those agreeing, I would certainly 
give more credit to them than I would if a hundred entomologists, 
with whose work I was unfamiliar, reported on that problem. The 
same thing would apply if I found Professors Davis and Forbes agree¬ 
ing on a point: I would be inclined to accept these two judgments and 
not the ninety-eight judgments of some others. I am wondering if 
Professor O’Kane didn’t find a few times when the consensus of 
opinion failed to represent the exact truth of entomological knowledge. 
Mr. W. C. O’ Kane: The majority of the entomologists left out the 
insects of which they had no personal knowledge. The replies con¬ 
cerning gipsy moth came from those states in which gipsy moth oc¬ 
curred and in which they had experience with it : The percentages are 
fixed on those that actually gave their experience with the insects. 
I confess to a feeling such as you have, precisely. I made out no chart 
myself and endeavored to leave myself out of it in tabulating and 
simply took, as you said, the volume. 
Mr. S. J. Hunter: It seems to me that this is one of the most il¬ 
luminating articles we could possibly have, coming after the President’s 
address. If I get the tenor of it, when the President’s address is car¬ 
ried into effect, the three lines: the dotted, dash and straight line will 
fuse. I expect to have these charts reproduced in large size and use 
them in my classes in entomology. 
Mr. J. J. Davis: This certainly has been a very suggestive paper 
and much appreciated, but I feel exactly as Professor Gossard does, in 
that I don’t believe it presents to us the true state of affairs as they exist. 
