December, ’20] 
PIERCE: COMMERCIAL ENTOMOLOGY 
453 
barriers that separate the fields of the careful man from the fields of 
the careless man, and the careful man must do his work all over. Too 
long have we contented ourselves with the opiate of satisfaction that 
we have done all that we could do when we have treated our own 
fields, and that what happened thereafter was an act of Providence 
and beyond our power. 
No insect or disease is beyond the power of mankind to combat if 
we go at it scientifically and with perfect cooperation. In fact we must 
do so in the future, or yield superiority in agriculture to the hitherto 
wild parts of the world where pioneers with vision are beginning to 
break the ground for competitive agriculture. 
Don’t let that chimera of tremendous cost stand in the road of more 
efficient production. Whenever someone has suggested, in The past, a 
comprehensive fight against some pest, the scientific world has held 
up its hands in holy awe, and monotonously cried, “It can’t be done, 
it can’t be done!” Are we such grovelling simpletons that we are 
afraid to tackle our problems efficiently, because we are afraid to men¬ 
tion huge sums of money? Who is there, that has the temerity to 
suggest that we can successfully fight a pest robbing us of one hundred 
million dollars every year, by appropriating a paltry hundred thousand 
dollars? Why should we waste our money by throwing it in driblets 
at an all-consuming pest? Can a regiment hold back an advancing 
army? 
Gentlemen, I will venture to say that the time is not far distant 
when organized agriculture will view its economic problems with 
broad vision and will fight all insects and disease from a business stand¬ 
point. The business man does not view huge figures with alarm, 
when the evidence, the plans and the expected results are placed be¬ 
fore him in a businesslike manner. It is therefore the place of the 
entomologist of the future to secure his facts, and record them after 
the manner of business, and to plan to meet insect attack in an effective 
and comprehensive manner. 
The Function of Government Contrasted with the Function 
of Commercial Enterprises 
The American people, and even our own membership, have fallen 
into the error of thinking that all great insect investigations and enter¬ 
prises are functions of government, and not of private initiative. This 
mistake has greatly retarded many phases of agricultural progress, 
because it has led the individual to think that the Government would 
do his work for him. It is the province of the Government to investi¬ 
gate great problems and to give advice to all citizens on matters of a 
technical nature, and demonstrate new methods. When the entire 
