February, ’20] PIERCE: COMMERCIAL AND PROFESSIONAL ENTOMOLOGY 119 
or with the bees. To be a producer in this world is a great thing. 
Think hard before you choose to stay with that salary. 
The commercial field is linked absolutely with the professional. 
There will be some men who will elect only to do advisory work, and 
remain aloof from the practical application. There will be some who 
will undertake sanitary projects only, and some who will elect to go 
forth with spraying outfits or gas generators, but I believe that most 
of us will combine the consulting, the practical application, and the 
purely commercial. 
What is the field of commercial entomology? It is the largest field 
for development in our science, although few have yet learned it. 
Modern business is being cast into new lines. Pick up any current 
magazine and glance at the advertisements of all industry and see 
how the emphasis is put upon scientific management, scientific proc¬ 
esses, etc. Open your eyes to what is going on in the business world 
and you will see that the great manufacturers of America know that 
to survive in the new order of things they must have the best technical 
advice available in the world today. Do you know any place where 
your technical knowledge would benefit some great business? If you 
know and do not act it is because you are not alive to your own poten¬ 
tiality. Modern business will give you every opportunity to prove 
your ability and will pay you what you are worth. Furthermore 
the modern business man is alive to the value of having his men attend 
meetings and conventions; to well worded advertisements written by 
men who know what they are talking about; and to scientific publica¬ 
tions from the pens of his employees. There is nothing admired more 
in business than brains, and foresight and initiative. If you can show 
a business man where you can make him money or save money for 
him you can name your price. 
As a salaried technical man in the industries you are in reality an 
independent, because rival corporations are watching your results and 
will bid for you if they see you can better their business. Further¬ 
more in the business world you rise or fall on your own merit and not 
because of secret machinations of officialdom. You may make ene¬ 
mies but business enmity is more open. You are constantly at the 
seat of commercial warfare and you know that you must give results. 
You will be free from the laissez-faire policy which has so retarded the 
progress of official entomology. 
I will now speak of the field in which I am most interested. It is 
a combination of investigation, consultation, demonstration, practise 
and manufacture. Why should we not carry our work beyond the 
mere investigation and when we find a new insecticide, manufacture 
it, or arrange to have it manufactured? Hence the desirability of 
