Entomology was important to the land-grant system

by John Owens

As an entomologist who first arrived at NMSU in 1977 to teach and conduct research, I always have been fascinated by the roles and accomplishments of my scientific forebearers at the university.

Insects, their study and their management have had much to do with the shape of the land-grant university system as we know it today. The integrated pest management concepts pioneered by entomologists in the 1960s spread across many other scientific disciplines, and interdisciplinary systems approaches to problem solving became commonplace at universities across the nation. And decades earlier, it was the boll weevil infestation in the southern states that energized Seaman Knapp to create a national model for what became the Cooperative Extension Service.

In the New Mexico Territory, entomology was prominent in the college curriculum developed in 1891 at New Mexico Agriculture College. Professor C.H. Tyler Townsend arrived at the fledgling college during its third year, in March 1891, and was charged by President Hiram Hadley with developing the entomology curriculum. Townsend's definition of the science has stood the test of time:

The study of this science will be divided into three topics: anatomy and physiology; systematic entomology and classification of insects; natural history and metamorphosis with special reference to economic entomology, insects injurious to agriculture, and means to be used against them.

Professor Townsend soon found himself overwhelmed with the academic tasks at hand. Not only was he teaching classes, but he also began developing the base of knowledge necessary to address New Mexico's agricultural needs. Within his first three months at the college, he published a bulletin on insects harmful to New Mexico fruits. During his first year, he developed a collection of 230 insects, "nearly all of which are more or less injurious to cultivated crops, the native vegetation or stock." At the end of his second year, he added another 360 species to his collection and published nearly 90 articles on New Mexico entomology. There was a tremendous void of knowledge to fill.

In 1893, Townsend exchanged jobs with T.D.A. Cockerell, an incredibly versatile, English-born professor working for the Royal Institute at Kingston, Jamaica. Townsend became curator of the Jamaican museum; and Cockerell, who stayed on at the upstart New Mexico college until the turn of the century, published an astonishing 3,904 papers in 221 periodicals in his career.

Perhaps his greatest effect on New Mexico, however, was through his students. For example, one of them was Fabian Garcia, a member of the college's first graduating class and the father of today's Mexican food industry. Cockerell also was president of the Southwestern and Rocky Mountain Division of the American Academy for the Advancement of Science, a post I now have the honor of holding.

Cockerell was fascinated by more than insects. Clearly ahead of his time, he spoke on such subjects as "Why is there no Sunday for women?" and "Does college education pay?" He also is remembered for traveling across campus on a mule and being the most prolific scholar in the institution's history.

Professors Townsend and Cockerell set high standards for the scientists at NMSU today, and we are grateful for their legacies as well as their zoological and agricultural accomplishments.