Chapter 7

This train of thought brings up the question of the status of our society with the station entomologists as represented by the committee of the general association. Those of us who had desired a national association for the various purposes for which such associations are formed, felt, I believe, if I may speak for them, that the creation of the different experimental stations rendered such an organization feasible. Your organization at Toronto and the constitution adopted and amended at the meeting at Washington all indicate that the chief object was the advancement of our chosen work and that the strength of the association would come from the experiment station entomologists. There was then no other organization of the kind, nor any intimation that such a one would be founded. Some of us therefore were surprised to learn from the circular sent out by Prof. Forbes, its chairman, that the committee appointed by the association of agricultural colleges and experiment stations, and through which we had hoped to communicate and co-operate with that association, was not in the proper sense a committee, but a section which has prepared (and in fact was required by the executive committee and the rules of the superior body to prepare) a programme of papers and discussions for the meeting to be held at the same time and place with our own. I cannot but feel that this is in some respects a misfortune, and it will devolve upon you to decide upon several questions of importance that will materially affect our future existence. That there is not room for two national organizations having the same objects in view and meeting at the same time and place goes, I think, without saying; and if the committee of the general association is to be anything more than a committee in the proper sense of the word, or if it is to assume with or without formal constitution the functions of our own association, then our own must necessarily be crippled, and to do any good at all must meet at a different time and a different place. A committee or section, or whatever it may be called, of the general association with which we meet, would preclude active membership of any but those who come within the constitution of that body. Our Canadian friends and many others who have identified themselves with applied entomology, and do not belong to any of our State or government institutions, would be debarred from active representation, however liberal the association may have been in inviting such to participate, without power to vote in its deliberations. Our own association has, or should have, no such limitations. Some of us who are entitled to membership in both bodies may feel indifferent as to the course finally decided upon, and that it will not make any difference whether we have an outside and independent organization, as that of the association of official chemists, or whether we do, as did the botanists and horticulturists, waive independence in favor of more direct connection with the general association, provided there is some way whereby the committees of the general association are given sufficient latitude and time to properly present their papers and deliberate; but there are others who feel more sensitive as to their action and are more immediately influenced by the feelings of the main body. I hope that whatever action be taken at this meeting, the general good and the promotion of economic entomology will be kept in mind and that no sectional or personal feeling will be allowed to influence our deliberations.

SUGGESTION AND COMMENT.

You will, I know, pardon me if, before concluding these remarks, I venture to make a few comments which, though not altogether agreeable, are made in all sincerity and in the hope of doing good. The question as to how far purely technical and especially descriptive and monographic work should be done by the different stations or by the national department is one which I have already alluded to and upon which we shall probably hold differing opinions, and which will be settled according to the views of the authorities at the different stations. Individually, I have ever felt that one ostensibly engaged in applied entomology and paid by the State or national government to the end that he may benefit the agricultural community can be true to his trust only by largely overcoming the pleasure of entomological work having no practical bearing. I would, therefore, draw the line at descriptive work except where it is incidental to the economic work and for the purpose of giving accuracy to the popular and economic statements. This would make our work essentially biological, for all biologic investigation would be justified, not only because the life habits of any insect, once ascertained, throw light on those of species which are closely related to it, but because we can never know when a species at present harmless may subsequently prove harmful, and have to be classed among the species injurious to agriculture.

On the question of credit to their original sources of results already on record, it is hardly necessary for me to advise, because good sense and the consensus of opinion will in the end justify or condemn a writer according as he prove just and conscientious in this regard.

There is one principle that should guide every careful writer, viz., that in any publications whatever, where facts or opinions are put forth, it should always be made clear as to which are based upon the author's personal experience and which are compiled or stated upon the authority of others. We should have no patience with a very common tendency to set forth facts, even those relating to the most common and best known species, without the indications to which I have referred. The tendency belittles our calling and is generally misleading and confusing, especially for bibliographic work, and cannot be too strongly deprecated.

On this point there will hardly be any difference of opinion, but I will allude to another question of credit upon which there prevails a good deal of loose opinion and custom. It is the habit of using illustrations of other authors without any indication of their original source.

This is an equally vicious custom and one to be condemned, though I know that some have fallen into the habit, without appreciation of its evil effect. It is, in my judgment, almost as blameworthy as to use the language or the facts of another without citing the authority.

Every member of this association who has due appreciation of the time and labor and special knowledge required to produce a good and true illustration of the transformations and chief characteristics of an insect will appreciate this criticism. However pardonable in fugitive newspaper articles in respect of cuts which, from repeated use, have become common or which have no individuality, the habit inevitably gives a certain spurious character to more serious and official publications, for assumption of originality, whether intended or not, goes with uncredited matter whether of text or figure. Nor is mere acknowledgment of loan or purchase to the publisher, institution or individual who may own the block or stone what I refer to. But that acknowledgment to the author of the figure or the work in which it first appears which is part of conscientious writing, and often a valuable index as to the reliability of the figure.

It were supererogation to point out to a body of this kind the value of the most careful and thorough work in connection with life histories and habits, often involving as it does much microscopic study of structure. The officers of our institutions who control the funds, and more or less fully our conduct, are apt to be somewhat impatient and inappreciative of the time given to anatomic work, and where it is given for the purpose of describing species and of synopsizing or monographing higher groups, without reference to agriculture, I am firmly of the belief that it diverts one from economic work, but where pursued for a definite economic purpose it cannot be too careful or too thorough and I know of no instances better calculated to appeal to and modify the views of those inclined to belittle such structural study than Phylloxera and Icerya. On the careful comparison of the European and American specimens of _Phylloxera vastatrix_, involving the most minute structures and details, depended originally those important economic questions which have resulted in legislation by many different nations and the regeneration of the affected vineyards of Europe, of our own Pacific coast, and of other parts of the world by the use of American resistant stocks. In the case of _Icerya purchasi_ the possibilities of success in checking it by its natural enemies hung at one time upon a question of specific difference between it and the _Icerya sacchari_ of Signoret--a question of minute structure which the descriptions left unsettled and which could only be settled by the most careful structural study and the comparison of the types, involving a trip to Europe.

CONCLUSION.

I have thus touched, gentlemen, upon a few of the many subjects that crowd upon the mind for consideration on an occasion like this--a few gleanings from a field which is passing rich in promise and possibility. It is a field that some of us have cultivated for many years and yet have only scratched the surface, and if I have ventured to suggest or admonish, it is with the feeling that my own labors in this field are ere long about to end and that I may not have another occasion.

At no time in the history of the world has there, I trow, been gathered together such a body of devoted and capable workers in applied entomology. It marks an era in our calling and, looking back at the progress of the past fifteen years, we may well ponder the possibilities of the next fifteen. They will be fruitful of grand results in proportion as we persistently and combinedly pursue the yet unsolved problems and are not tempted to the immediate presentation of separate facts, which are so innumerable and so easily observed that their very wealth becomes an element of weakness. Epoch-making discoveries result only from this power of following up unswervingly any given problem, or any fixed ideal. The kerosene emulsion, the Cyclone nozzle, the history of _Phylloxera vastatrix_, of _Phorodon humuli_, of _Vedalia cardinalis_, are illustrations in point, and while we may not expect frequent results as striking or of as wide application as these, there is no end of important problems yet to be solved and from the solution of which we may look for similar beneficial results. Applied entomology is often considered a sordid pursuit, but it only becomes so when the object is sordid. When pursued with unselfish enthusiasm born of the love of investigation and the delight in benefiting our fellow men, it is inspiring, and there are few pursuits more deservedly so, considering the vast losses to our farmers from insect injury and the pressing need that the distressed husbandman has for every aid that can be given him. Our work is elevating in its sympathies for the struggles and suffering of others. Our standard should be high--the pursuit of knowledge for the advancement of agriculture. No official entomologist should lower it by sordid aims.

During the recent political campaign the farmer must have been sorely puzzled to know whether his interests needed protection or not. On the abstract question of tariff protection to his products we, as entomologists, may no more agree than do the politicians or than does the farmer himself. But ours is a case of protection from injurious insects, and upon that there can nowhere be division of opinion. It is our duty to see that he gets it with as little tax for the means as possible.

* * * * *

POTASH SALTS.

[Footnote: By John B. Smith, entomologist. Potash as an insecticide is not entirely new, but has never been brought out with the prominence I think it deserves.--_N.J. Ag. Col. Exp. St., Bulletin 75._]

My attention was attracted to potash salts as an insecticide, by the casual remark of an intelligent farmer, that washing his young pear trees with a muriate of potash solution cleared them of scales. The value of this substance for insecticide purposes, should its powers be sufficient, struck me at once, and I began investigation. It was unluckily too late in the season for field experiments of the nature desired; but it is the uniform testimony of farmers who have used either the muriate or the kainit in the cornfields, that they have there no trouble with grubs or cut worms. Mr. E.B. Voorhees, the senior chemist of the station, assures me that on his father's farm the fields were badly infested, and replanting cornhills killed by grubs or wire worms was a recognized part of the programme. Since using the potash salts, however, they have had absolutely no trouble, and even their previously worst-infested fields show no further trace of injury. The same testimony comes from others, and I feel safe in recommending these salts, preferably kainit, to those who are troubled with cut worms or wire worms in corn.

EXPERIMENTS.

A lot of wire worms (_Iulus_ sp.) brought in from potato hills were put into a tin can with about three inches of soil and some potato cuttings, and the soil was thoroughly moistened with kainit, one ounce to one pint of water. Next morning all the specimens were dead. A check lot in another can, moistened with water only, were healthy and lived for some days afterward.

A number of cabbage maggots placed on the soil impregnated with the solution died within twelve hours.

To test its actual killing power, used the solution, one ounce kainit to one pint water, to spray a rose bush badly infested with plant lice. Effect, all the lice dead ten hours later; the younger forms were dropping within an hour.

Sprayed several heads of wheat with the solution, and within three hours all the aphides infesting them were dead.

Some experiments on hairy caterpillars resulted unsatisfactorily, the hair serving as a perfect protection against the spray, even from the atomizer.

To test its effect on the foliage, sprayed some tender shoots of rose and grape leaves, blossoms, and clusters of young fruit. No bad effect observable 24 hours later. There was on some of the leaves a fine glaze of salt crystals, and a decided salt taste was manifest on all.

Muriate of potash of the same strength was tested as follows: Sprayed on some greenhouse camellias badly infested by mealy bugs, it killed nearly all within three hours, and six hours later not a living insect was found. The plants were entirely uninjured by the application.

Thoroughly sprayed some rose bushes badly infested with aphides, and carried off some of the worst branches. On these the lice were dead next morning; but on the bushes the effect was not so satisfactory, most of the winged forms and many mature wingless specimens were unaffected, while the terminal shoots and very young leaves were drooping as though frosted. All, however, recovered later.

The same experiment repeated on other, hardier roses, resulted similarly so far as the effect on the aphides was concerned, but there was no injury to the plant.

Used this same mixture on the caterpillars of _Orgyia leucostigma_ with unsatisfactory effect, and with the same results used it on a number of other larvæ. Used on the rose leaf roller, _Cacæcia rosaceana_, it was promptly effective.

Tested for injury to plants, it injured the foliage and flowers of wisteria, the younger leaves of maple and grape, and the finer kinds of roses.

From these few experiments kainit seems preferable to the muriate, as acting more effectively on insects and not injuriously on plants. For general use on plants it is not to be recommended. It is otherwise on underground species, where the soil will be penetrated by the salts and where the moisture evaporates but slowly, and the salt has a longer and better chance to act. The best method of application would be a broadcasting in fertilizing quantity before or during a rain, so as to carry the material into the soil at once. In cornfields infested with grubs or wire worms, the application should be made before planting. Where it is to be used to reach root lice, it should be used when the injury is beginning. When strawberry beds are infested by the white grub, the application should be made when cultivating or before setting out.

The potash salts have a high value as fertilizers, and any application made will act as a stimulant as well as insecticide, thus enabling the plants to overcome the insect injury as well as destroying the insect.

In speaking on this subject in Salem county, I learned from farmers present that those using potash were not troubled with the corn root louse to any extent, and also that young peach trees have been successfully grown in old lice-infested orchards, where previously all died, by first treating the soil with kainit of potash.

* * * * *

A meteorological station has been built on Mont Blanc, at an elevation of 13,300 feet, under the direction of M. Vallot. It required six weeks to deliver the materials. The instruments are self-registering and are to be visited in summer every fifteen days if possible, the instruments being left to register between the visits. In the winter the observatory will be entirely inaccessible. This is the highest scientific station in Europe, but is 847 feet lower than the Pike's Peak station in Colorado.

* * * * *

THE EXPENSE MARGIN IN LIFE INSURANCE.

The principle of mutuality requires that the burden of expense in life insurance should be borne by all the members equally; but, even with the most careful adjustment, the allowance usually made is considerably in excess of what is needed in the regular companies doing business on the "level premium" plan.

It is customary in these companies to add to the net premium a percentage thereof to cover the expense account. This practice, though in harmony with the "commission system," is so clearly defective and so far removed from the spirit of life insurance mathematics, that it scarcely deserves even this passing notice.

It is generally understood that these corporations combine the functions of the savings bank and life insurance company, and it is only by separating the two in our minds as far as possible that we can obtain a clear conception of the laws that should govern the apportionment of the expenses among the great variety of policies.

While it is a comparatively simple matter to state the amount of either the insurance or savings bank element in a single policy, it is by no means easy, as things go, to classify the company's actual expenses on this basis.

Fortunately, we can pretty accurately determine what these amounts should be in any particular case.

In the first place, there are institutions in our midst devoted solely to receiving and conserving small sums of money; doing, in fact, exactly what our insurance companies are undertaking to do with the reserve and contributions thereto. These savings banks are required by law to make returns to the State commissioner, from whose official report we can get a very good idea of the expense attendant on doing this business.

Confining ourselves to the city banks, where the conditions more nearly resemble those of the insurance companies, we find in thirty-eight combined institutions for saving in the State of Massachusetts a deposit in 1888 of $192,174,566, taken care of at an aggregate cost of $455,387, or about 24-100 of one per cent.

The same ratio carried out for all the savings banks in Massachusetts gives a trifle over 25-100 of one per cent.; we may, therefore, consider ¼ of one per cent. as expressing pretty nearly the cost of receiving, paying out, and investing the savings of the people.

We must remember in this connection that in the popular estimation, the savings bank is an important factor in the public welfare, and in the towns and smaller cities there are often found public spirited men willing to give their services to encourage this mode of saving; but public sentiment has not yet given to life insurance the place which it is destined, sooner or later, to occupy by the side of the savings bank. Hence the services of able managers can only be obtained by a liberal outlay of the corporate funds. A satisfactory adjustment of the matter of expenses will, perhaps, do more than anything else to bring about this recognition on the part of the public.

In the case of the savings bank it is safe to say that for double the present outlay a liberal salary could be paid to all the officers. Following the analogy, we are led to infer that if this be the case in savings banks, then ½ of one per cent. of the reserve should be an ample allowance for the special labor required in the purely banking portion of the business.

In this we have the concurrence of the late Elizur Wright. In an essay on this subject he says:

"The expenses of the five largest savings banks in Boston, in 1869, did not exceed 4-10 of one per cent. on $28,000,000 deposited in them. They certainly had twice as many transactions, in proportion to the deposits, as any life insurance company could have with the same amount of reserve, so that ½ of one per cent. on the reserve seems to be ample for all working expenses save those of maintaining the agencies and collecting the premiums."

This need hardly be looked upon as an admission that it costs twice as much to care for the funds of a life insurance company as for those of a savings bank. A liberal expense allowance must be made at the outset, seeing that an error in this particular cannot easily be rectified after the policy is issued. The dividend, or, to speak more correctly, the annual return of surplus, will correct any overpayment on this account.

There is another expense which seems inevitable. This is the government tax on insurance companies, amounting in the aggregate to nearly 1/3 of one per cent. on the reserve.

When we consider that these institutions are intended to encourage thrift and to relieve the community from the care of numberless widows and orphans, it seems a clear violation of the principles of political economy to levy a tax on this business; still, whatever our opinion may be as to the justice or injustice of the imposition, the tax is maintained and must be provided for. Consequently a further allowance of ½ of one per cent. must be added to the net premium to cover the same, making a total of 1 per cent. of the reserve for banking expenses and taxes. Considering this point as settled for the time being, let us proceed to investigate the insurance expenses.

Here, again, we are fortunate in being able to refer to the official reports of a class of corporations doing nearly, if not quite pure insurance.

The assessment societies, outside of the fraternal and benevolent, reporting in 1889 to the insurance commissioner of Massachusetts, show outstanding risks amounting to $733,515,366. Losses to the amount of $7,270,238 were paid during the year at a cost for transacting the business of $2,403,053, which includes among other items "agency expenses and commissions," which amount to about $1,203,000, or 17 per cent. of the cost value of the insurance actually done. It would seem as if an allowance of 20 per cent. would be a liberal one in the case of the regular companies, which surely have as good facilities for doing business as the assessment societies.