The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-01-04
wANTBD-soMErH1Ne PRACTICAL,

Our sister State of Illinois has given more
attention to the study of noxious insects than
any other in the West. The thirteenth re-
port of the State Entomologist is devoted to
an account of all insects known to be in any
way destructive to the strawberry, and also
contains an account of the wheat bulb worm,
the wheat-straw worm, and notes on insects
affecting sorghum and broom-corn.
This is the second annual report of Mr. S.
A. Forbes, the State Entomologist, who sue
ceeded the eminent Cyrus Thomas. Illinois
has fostered her scientific men. AS one re-
suit the State reports on geology and ento-
mology have long taken rank in the West
Professor Forbes has been for nearly ten years
curator of the laboratory of natural history at
Bloomington, and has made extended re-
There is no reason why each State OF the
Union should not employ ageologist, chemist,
entomologist and botanist to determine there
lation of the rocks, soils, plants and insects to
it's agricultural interests. Indiana has been
very far behind in the study of natural his
tory and geology, and, except the recent re-
ports of the present Geologist very little has
been accomplished of either scientific or
economic value.
The great mistake has been in farming out
the State schools of higher instruction to the
county-seats, instead Of centering them at
the State capital We have had a State
Chemist for several years, but his laboratory
is out on the prairie west of the village of
Chauncey, where no one could get to it; and
for all the good accomplished for Indiana, he
might as we'll have his office in Alaska. The
State Ichthyologist is located on his farm at
Spencer He has a fish-pond, and has COM
piled pamphlet on carp culture. 1t is not
the fault, but the misfortune of these officers
that they have not been able to do more than
they have The fault is the States, and the
niggardly provisions made for them. The
State Geologist is centrally located, and by
large collection illustrating the geology of
Indiana, and scores of people from all parts Of
the State visit it every week. What Indiana
needs is State university, in the full sense
of the word, located at the State capital. It's
professor of geology should be the State
Geologist; the State Entomologist should give
course of lectures on insects injurious to
vegetation; the State Botanist should build
up his herbarium here. Such a
university should teach only prac-
teal subjects, and should select
its specialists for curators and instructors. 1t
would need no colleges of theology, medicine
or literature just now. 1t should have labo-
ratories, rather than libraries, and should be
domiciled in modest style. For the present,
aesthetics, polite literature, metaphysics and
oratorical contests are not what the ''rowdy
West is suffering for. We should like to see
a dozen practical teachers Of science-applied
mathematics, natural history, mechanics
chemistry, and the like-brought together in
the interests of economics and the develop
ment of the wealth and resources of the State.
No Latin, no Greek, no philomathean societies
or 'oratoricap contests, no soft handed "pro-
fessors," or college clubs no president with a
stheory," no educational cranks OF supernu-
meraries, no normal-school attachment, no
glass case don't you-touch-it museum, no rec
itation rooms no fne-art department. no
dormitory for boys, no dormitory for girls, and
no catalogue By all means, no lying, half
inch-thick catalogue. Let the State give us
such a university, and locate it in the State
capital and make it responsible for the devel-
opment of the geology, chemistry, botany, to-
Biography, ichthyology entomology, and gen.
eral natural history of Indiana. And in ten
or twenty years it will be worth while to note
the results.
LEATHER AND PRUNELLA
The newspaper readers who have been ac-