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.
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