we are at Washington; and, except as a directing agent and a useful servant, I cannot see where the future growth of the department’s influence is to be outside of those federal functions which are executive.  Just what that directing influence is to be is the question of the hour, not only in the broader but in the special sense.  The same question, in a narrower sense, had arisen in the case of the few States which employed State entomologists.  In the event, for instance, of an outbreak of some injurious insect, or in the event of any particular economic entomological question within the limits of the State having such an officer, the United States entomologist would naturally feel that any effort on his part would be unnecessary, or might even be looked upon as an interference.  He would feel that there was always danger of mere duplication of observation or experiment, except where appealed to for aid or co-operation.  This is, perhaps, true only of insects which are local or sectional, and is rather a narrow view of the matter, but it is one brought home from experience, and is certainly to be considered in our future plans.  The favor with which the museum work of the national division was viewed by you at the meeting last November and the amount of material sent on for determination would indicate that the building up of a grand national reference collection will be most useful to the station workers.  But to do this satisfactorily we need your co-operation, and I appeal to all entomologists to aid in this effort by sending duplicates of their types to Washington, and thus more fully insuring against ultimate loss thereof.

STATUS OF OUR SOCIETY.

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