February, ’18] 
FOOD PRODUCTION DISCUSSION 
115 
The bearing rotation of crops may have upon insect injuries should 
be kept in mind and improvements suggested wherever it is possible 
to secure greater immunity from insect damage without, at the same 
time, causing loss or injury in other directions. An important point 
in this connection is that general practice in a locality has doubtless 
justified itself by experience and one should consider the matter care¬ 
fully before proposing innovations which in the long run may prove 
less successful. Preventive measures, as a rule, cost little and in these 
times of high prices and scarcity of help, expense and labor count for 
more than under normal conditions. 
The value of good and clean culture cannot be too strongly empha¬ 
sized, since we know that well cultivated crops will frequently outgrow 
insect injury that would be serious, if not fatal, to those receiving 
less care, and entomologists can cite numerous cases where the lack 
of clean culture has resulted in more or less damage, frequently se¬ 
rious, from insect pests. The origin of army worm outbreaks in thick 
weedy growths is one of the more striking instances, while the less 
serious damage by stalk borers and some of their allies is intimately 
related to an abundance of weeds. 
Secondly, the entomologist should lay particular stress upon well 
recognized methods of controlling insects and urge activities along 
these lines. It is especially desirable that he should be in position, in 
case it is necessary, to restrict or modify spraying schedules, to indi¬ 
cate beyond question the applications which will give the maximum 
benefit at the minimum expenditure of time and money. It is particu¬ 
larly desirable that he limit his recommendations to methods which 
will surely result in benefit and preferably to those most likely to be 
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effective in the hands of the average grower. 
The present is an excellent time to question the efficacy of methods 
frequently recommended for the control of various insects and to 
ascertain whether in our enthusiasm for the theoretically perfect we 
may not have overstepped the line of the practical and advised treat¬ 
ments which in many instances would not justify themselves if a care¬ 
ful account was kept of profit and loss. Methods of problematical 
value may well be held in abeyance until further work has demonstrated 
their utility. There is a legitimate place for experimentation but for 
the present we believe, in case of large sized propositions, at least, that 
it is far better to advise a well-tried method, though it may be less 
efficient than will probably prove true of one which has not been 
thoroughly tested. 
Now, supplementing that I would state that in New York last 
year we had an “ Insect Pest Survey and Information Service.” 
Through cooperation with county agents and special agents of the 
