The news & observer., 1897-06-16
Spirited Denial of Pref. Mas
Sey's AvermentS.
BEEN a HARD-PUSHED MAN
HEAITH BEEN STRAINED TO
POINT OF BREAKING,
HIS WORK AS ENTOMoLoGisV
Ter Years of Service Has 8een Labor
of Love, ard Is Willing to Be
Judged by the Work
Arr0p,pIiShod
Accomplished.

To the Editor: Sir.-In Sundays pa
per Mr. Massey of the A. and M. College
sets forth his reasons for my attempted
summary dismissal from the position /
ment station for a much longer period
than Mr.. Massey has held his. Mr.. Mas
sey says the only reason for my dismis
sal was that my infirmity prevented my
teaching. How does Mr. Massey know
this? How did the board get their knowl
edge? Did they give me a trial or even
a chance to defend myself, my reputation
and my work? / deny in toto and scorn
Mr.. Massey's insinuation. j have fire.
quently addressed farmers and fruit
growers meetings and at every meeting
of the association of experiment station
officers that / have attended l have read
papers and made addresses. AT the last
meeting of this body-including the en-
tire body of American teachers and ex-
perimenters in agriculture, | read two
papers and made two extempOrary ad-
dresses. / was honored by the section of
botany and horticulture by being made
chairman of the committee on seed test
ing
Those who know me intimately know
that the infirmity in Observation-Disclosures
lis not such disadvantage as people
commonly Imagine who do not know the
antecedent facts. My deafness is not
congenital, but was caused by an epi-
demic of meningitis when | was about
IL years of age. There are successful
business men in Raleigh whose hearing
is little better than mine. There have
lived and worked eminent professional
men who were as bad or worse affected
Il may instance the great musician
Beethoven. My most appreciative and
intimate friends are among the ply
sicians of the State who have special
means of knowing just how the case is
and who never offer me slobbering SYM
pathy. Nor has any of them ever sought
by underhanded and nefarious methods
to mjure a reputation earned by ten
years of unremftting and severe labor
in the field of economic botany and en-
tomology. / repeat, the man who says
l cannot teach my specialties is an ig
noramus or a wilful and malignant Liar.
L did not contract with the board of
trustees as a teacher, but as an invest
gator. North Carolina is a great agri-
cultural State and her farmers need the
mology in other ways than teaching the
elements of these sciences to some 1OG
freshmen In a college.
There has been no harier-pushed mar
on the station staff than myself To do
justice TO the direct calls of farmers for
information to protect the State from
ruinons inVaSions of crop-pests has taxed
my time and strength to the point of
breaking. To add teaching to this work
is a physical impossibility for me or any
other man. Even as it is, / have been
unable to get around our State bOun-
daries often enough to detect recently in
troduced, dangerous crop parasites. The
terrible fruit scourge San Jose scale had
been IN the State for several years be-
fore it was detected by me. and the same
is the ease with peach ''yeliows." A
special law and appropriation from the
State was required to enable me to To-
cate and arrange for exterminatIng these
pests.
Mr.. Massey, while insinuating my bot
anlcal defects, says not word about my
work as entOmologist Of the experiment
station and State ent0melogist under the
the Crop Pest Commission. This could
scarcely have been an oversight since Mr.
Massey has pretty frequently brought
HE for identification prescriptions
for remedy of noxious insects sent him
by his private correspondents. What is
10 become of this line of work? Are the
scale scourges, the tobacco miner and
other pests to have free range to prey
upon the crops of the helpless farmers.
fruit growers and truckers of North
Carolina? Was it motives Of economy
that proposed the cessation of work that
ch thn %,+o
100000 a year by forestalling these
ruinous pests?
Mr.. Massey wakes indignant over the
proposed sang digger Of Statesyille. Let
him not be agraid. / can personally
vOuch for this young man. | believe he
started out some few years ago to study
for the ministry, and had he not fallen
before the deadly cigarette he might
even now be preaching morality in the
sanging camps of the west. AS to fresh
man botany, Mr.. Hyams can without
doubt handle it. / recently sent a text
book OF this kind and grade to my 10
year-old sister. and she is making COM
mendable progress even without a mas
ter.
Philosophical educators know there is
no essential interdependence between in
ves-lgations, economic science and peda-
gogy or teaching the elements of the
science. On this point | appeal to sue
cessful teachers of science in our State
University. 1t very rarely occurs that
one man possesses the endowments neces-
sary IN good instructor and a good in
vesugator Sir John Lawes, the most
noted of all agricultural investigators,
mas time and again refused to take stu
dents at Rothamstead for just this rea-
son.
Mr.. Massey further appeals to the or
ganic law or Hatch act'' of Congress to
prove that the experiment stations should
be mere divisions or chairs Of mechani-
cal ard agricultural colleges and that the
office Of director is illegal and unneces-
sary. But good father Hatch never
claimed omniscience, nor did he think his
bill would do more than start a scheme
that would develop byits inherent forces
and according to the needs Of the coup-
try. Ii no station director is needed what
sad misconstruction has been put up
on the act and what q waste of forne rCo