Procuress in Economic Entomology in the United States

PROCURESS IN ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY IN THE UNITED STATES. By L. O. HOWARD, Ph. D. Entomologist. INTRODUCTION. At the beginning of the present century the United States, with its population of only 5,000,000, with its restricted geographical area, with its small fields and its comparatively slight diversity of crops, and with its infrequent communication and limited commercial relations with other countries, suffered comparatively little from the attacks of insects on its crops. There are old last-century records of the local destruction of the grain crops by the army worm, and as early as 1793 the cotton caterpillar did a great deal of damage to the cotton crop of Georgia and South Carolina. Similar outbreaks occurred in 1800 and 1804, while the Hessian ñy,^ as its name suggests, made its destruc- tive appearance soon after the close of the war of the Revolution. With the rapid growth of the new Republic, both in geographic area and in j)opulation, and with its marvelous agricultural development, many native plant-eating insects, finding in cultivated crops an almost unlimited abundance of food greatly to their taste, multiplied rapidly and became important factors in crop production. As commercial relations with Europe and other countries increased and as the introduction of steam made international journeys more and more rapid, new injurious insects were introduced from abroad, many of them becoming readily established and assuming an importance as crop enemies surpassing that of native species. Many of them, in fact, as has frequently been pointed out, became, for reasons which need not be discussed here and which are not well understood, more prolific and injui'ious than in their native homes. For a long time these imported species, beginning their work on the Atlantic seaboard, traveled westward by natural spread, entering new regions after a few years, fol- lowing in the track of the pioneers. Comparatively few have entered our territory from the South, but with the development of agriculture ^ The "Hessian fly" is a name v/hich well illustrates a tendency to apply as a popular term to an injurious insect the cognomen of a disliked or hated class or individual. Other examples are the use of the name '*Abe Lincoln bug " in Geor- gia after the close of the civil war for the harlequin cabbage bug, which at that time had just reached that State on its northeastward march; the later application of the term *' Third Party bag ■' to the same insect in Texas, and the term '• French weed " to the stink weed in portions of Caiî»da of anti-Gallic sympathies. 135 136 YEARBOOK OF THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. upon the Pacific coast and with increasing commercial relations with countries beyond the Pacific, injurious insects have at last begun to reach us from a westward direction. From this it will be seen that as the century has grown older the need of remedies against insects has grown greater. Fortunately in this case, the supply of remedies has commensurately satisfied the demand, and the nation has not failed in this direction to justify its claim to be called "a practical people." SOME OF THE WORKERS AND CAUSES OF PROGRESS. FIRST NATIVE SCIENTIFIC ENTOMOLOGIST. William Dandridge Peck, who commenced to write in 1795, was our first native scientific entomologist, and he was as well our first economic worker in this line. The first economic publication of value was probably his ''Description and history of the cankerworm," origi- nally printed in the Massachusetts Magazine for 1795, and reproduced in the Massachusetts Agricultural Repository and Journal under the title ''The natural history of the cankerworm," in October, 1796. This first paper was followed by " Natural history of the slugworm" (the common cherry slug), published in 1799 ; "Animportant communication relative to the cankerworm," 1816 ; "On the insects which destroy the young branches of the pear tree and the leading shoot of the Weymouth pine," 1817; "Some notice of the insect which destroys the locust tree," 1818; and "Insects which aifect the oaks aud cher- ries," 1819, all of these articles being published in the Massachusetts Agricultural Repository and Journal. FIRST OFFICIAL ENTOMOLOGIST AND HIS WORK IN MASSACHUSETTS^ Dr. Thaddens William Harris (1795-1856) was probably the first American entomologist to receive public compensation for his labors, and in this sense he may be called the earliest official entomologist in this country. His first entomological article, entitled "Upon the natural history of the salt-marsh caterpillar," was published in 1823^ and illustrated by an excellent full-page steel-engraved plate. Although it does not appear from the title, the article was of a distinctly economic character. The introductory paragraph reads as follows: " In the present state of agriculture, hay has become an important prod- uct to the farmer in this vicinity. From the high price and the increased demand for the imported and cultivated grasses, the indige- nous and natural growth of the soil must rise in value; and of this perhaps none is more valuable on the seaboard than that of the salt meadows." Dr. Harris shows that the ravages of insects in the salt meadows, particularly of caterpillars and grasshoppers, had become formidable, and states that the object of his paper is an attempt to elucidate the natural history of the caterpillars, " with the hope that it insbj lead to ^Massachusetts Agricultural Repository and Journal for 1823, pp. 322-331. PROGRESS IN ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY. 137 some sure method of exterminating tliem, or of limiting their ravages to a shorter period." After a full account of the life history of the species and of the dates of transformation, bringing out the interesting point that the caterpillars are imbued with so great a vitality that long immersion in water does not destroy their life, he concludes by recommending, first, that the grass should be cut early in July, and, second, that the marshes should be burned over in March. It was, in fact, a good, plain, practical paper. The publication of Dr. Harris's first paper was followed by a con- stant succession of interesting and valuable articles, published for the most part in the New England Farmer, more than half of them being devoted to the economic bearings of entomology. In 1831 he prepared a catalogue of insects, which was appended to Hitchcock's Massachusetts Geological Report, and at a later period he was appointed by Massachusetts as one of a commission to make a more thorough geological and botanical survey of the State. In this capacity he prepared his noted classic report on insects injurious to vegetation, first published in full in 1841, the portion on beetles having appeared in 1838. He reprinted the work under the name of ''treatise" instead of "report" in 1842, and again in revised form in 1852. The whole sum received by him from the State for this labor was $175. After his death the w^ork was reprinted by the State in its present beautiful form, with wood engravings which marked an epoch in that art. The practical value of Dr. Harris's work has been vast. His scientific reputation has steadily grown. His book is to-day as valuable as it was when first written, more than fifty years ago. On entering any entomological workshop in the land the first book that will catch the eye upon the desk is a well-worn copy of the "Treatise upon insects injurious to vegetation." He w^as fortunate in having a new field; but it is impossible to conceive that this field could at that time have been more intelligently worked, from both the scientific and the practical standpoint. Many new insect pests have been studied since his time, and many new and practical ideas in regard to the Avarfare against injurious insects have been advanced; but no one has had to do over the work w^hich Harris did so well. He kept constantly in mind the idea that it is necessary to knov/ the life history of the insect before suggesting remedies, and although in his work he had little to say about insecticides or their application, he was successful in many instances, as in the case of the salt-marsh caterpillar, to which reference has been made, in showing that after the life history and periods of transformation of a given insect foe are accurately known, some slight variation in cropping or in agricultural methods will do away with the loss. This important idea was lost sight of until comparative^ recent years, and even of late the great develop- ments in the mechanical destruction of insects caused it to become temporarily obscured; but there can be no doubt that as a general 138 YEARBOOK OF THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. principle it affords the most natural method of fighting many insect pests. If Harris had been an agricultnrist himself, or if ho had known more of agricultural methods, he would perhaps have given his work a greater practical turn than he did. He was, as a matter of fact, a naturalist and a student in disposition; the fact that he was educated as a physician and was by occupation a librarian (theo- retically an unfortunate combination for practical agricultural ideas) emphasizes the broad-mindedness of the man when we realize the value of his work. INVESTIGATIONS BY THE STATE OF NEW YORK. In his economic line Harris worked practically alone throughout the* greater part of his career, until during the latter part of his life, when Dr. Asa Fitch, of Kew York (1809-1879), began to write for different agricultural journals about injurious insects.

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