wood, field, and stream, that many thought him demented, while others declared that he destroyed more grain than his scientific investigations were worth.
At its organization he became identified with the Washington County Agricultural Society, and soon began to give attention to the public need by various contributions to the local journals on economic entomology. In 1845 he published in Dr. Emmons's "American Quarterly Journal of Agriculture and Science" an article of thirteen pages on "Insects of the genus Cecidomyia," in which he described a new species of willow gall-fly, illustrating it by figures of the insect in different stages of growth, and of the excrescence it produces on the willow. This was his first formal entomological essay. Six months later he sent another of thirty pages to the same journal on "The Wheat Midge," and, in 1846, a third of sixty-three pages on "The Hessian Fly." This was afterward revised and republished in the "Transactions of the New York State Agricultural Society." In 1847 he published a valuable paper on "Winter Insects," of which he was the first to write specifically; and also in the "Transactions" gave an account of the currant-worm and its moth. This paper, beautifully illustrated with colored engravings, was widely copied in foreign scientific journals, and brought its author prominently into notice as a scientific investigator. At this period Dr. Fitch was employed for a time collecting and naming the insects of the State of New York, for the State Cabinet of Natural History. In the Report of the Regents of the University for 1851 he gave a descriptive catalogue of the insects of New York of the order Homoptera, in which he named and described a number of new species.
In 1854 Dr. Fitch was appointed New York State Entomologist, and held the position seventeen years, during which period he devoted himself exclusively and most assiduously to scientific work. The little office a few yards from his residence became his workshop, and night and day sent forth light to the world. So close was the watch he kept at the hatching-time of the various larvæ collected, that for a week together he would catch his sleep in an arm-chair, waking at intervals to note the wonderful changes taking place in the insect-life before him. At such times, his meals, and an extra hour after tea to read the news, was all the recreation he allowed himself, and even then his pocket-net was always within reach, to capture any unwary moth or curious beetle whose love of light attracted it to the room. Dr. Fitch was a most devout Christian, and reading the Scriptures and prayer with his family was a daily habit of his life. But even when thus engaged it was not safe for an attractive insect to come in his way. A daughter, the one to whom he was indebted for many of the beautiful drawings which illustrate his writings, relates that on one such occasion when he had the Bible in his hands, and was about to begin reading, a moth of peculiar appearance alighted on the book
