New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1913-01-05
\R. LELAND OSSIAN HOWARD is the

bug gazer OF the world. Moreover, he makes
Ponce de Leon, who died searching for the
| Fountain of Youth, look like pcripatctic
and paralyzed prune, and convinccs you
that Alexander Pope, who achieved fame by
writing a somewhat stiltcd couplct warning
people away from the Pierian spring, had an
unnatural fear of fresh and refreshing water.
| Leland Ossian, when he is not at work,
amuscs himself with the greatest two-handed
| Juggling performance known to the modern
stage, lifting big dippcrs from the fountain
with one hand and clcvating large goblcts of
the Picrian with the other.
Briefly speaking, DR.. Howard is chief Of
! the Bureau of Entomology in the Depart
mcnt Of Agriculture entomology being the
hghbrow word that means bugs and bug
ologv), and he is the big bass horn of that
band Of Americans who, when they put on
all the foreign decorations and orders OF
| knighthoOd that have been given 10 them,
weigh two hundred pounds above normal.
| And don't forget this: His pronOunccmcnt
on Hymcnoptcra, which includes anything
| from an ant to an iChnCumon, is a standard
piece Of work. Anybody who can kill off
the houSchy, tell funny story, look human,
and write about llymcnoptcra, deserves rich
ly, not TO say prodigally, all the orders,
| itSlNNN, NtNlNN' lllN' blplNi iii
horns. and medals that the world has hung
across Leland CSSian's well developed and
pumpikc chest.
Everybody owes something to this invcs-
tigator Of insects. He is the patron saint of
al those who wear thin stockings; for he is
an engine Of death when he gets on the track
Of mosquito. He is the big brother of the
farmer, because, in pursuing every insect
| that can hurt a crop, he is as swift as
Rupert, relentless as an Indian, and patient
as a Spartan. And, when he finds a parasite
or bug that will eat up and Kill OIL the de-
structivc bugs, he lets out yell OF JOY,
dresses himself up gorgcously as a Christ
mas tree. ruShcS to his club, and beats the
whey out Of anybody who darcs 10 play him
game Of billiards. Every year the United
States government, famous nowadays for IT'S
energetic economies, looscns up more than
six hundred thousand dollars to pay him
and his assistants 10 look through micro
scopes and fathom the inncrmost secrets of
! bug family life or TO travel through field
and forest 10 find on, what harm or good is
done by insects visible or invisible.
Its his duty and delight to protect every
| thing from q nut TO an orchid, from an orchid
| 20 an orchard, from a cotton field 10 forest.
! Mention 10 him the pear thrips or the Ar-
gcntinc ant, and nc can tell YOU what time
lit goes 70 bed and how many minutes It
! lives. Ask him about the white fly or the
cranberry insect. and, taking one long, lin
gcring slant through his microscope, he will
! impart 10 YOU more about these small tribes
than al the archcologis,s have ever learned
about Egypt by dcciphcring the animals,
annals and annotations on the walls OF the
pyramids If farmer in Michigan tclc-
graphs him that a bug with sixteen legs is
biting q sugar beet on the root, he sends one
Of his men TO beat the bug that eats the
beet. If ne learns that some strange and
! Lilliputian invader is using blade Of wheat
! as a grapevine swing, he sends another agent
to sit up nights with the wheat. He is the
human bug-alarm system.
| In the eighteen years that he has held ms
present position he has conquered the cod
| ling moth and added ten million dollars to
the value OF the apple crop Of this country.
Whenever a gypsy moth hears him coming,
the bug works up panic that would make
the fight Of the Turks before the Bulgarlans
look Ike a lcisurcly stroll down summer
lane when the shadows begin 20 fall and the
cool Of evening comes. He has fought the
white scale that made merry with the orange
and lemon orchards Of California, and every
week or two he dcclarcs war against new
| I.;.I &c ,,.-.-i-. that T. iUIvr'np the forests