필드 과학, 과학 서비스 그리고 해충 방제: 20세기 초 미국 남부 목화 바구미 대발생을 중심으로

Abstract

The cotton boll weevil, imported from Mexico in 1894, destroyed the basic order of Southern life in America. The systematic control of insects became an official mission of the Bureau of Entomology (BE) within the U.S. Department of Agriculture. “Fieldwork” involved the creation of a field station, and proved to be the backbone of scientific activities supported by the BE. However, from the outset the Bureau’s field scientists were confronted with various groups of experts and amateurs involved in the socioeconomic concerns connected to the cotton boll weevil outbreak. The Bureau’s scientists’ cooperation with state entomologists in the regional field helped gain popular trust over the intellectual autonomy of economic entomology against the encroachers with different academic backgrounds of the Bureau of Plant Industry. In addition, field scientists were main actors in advocating the popular acceptance for the “scientific” pest control. The field science of the BE maintained the balance between the public agenda of combating pest insects and the scientific agenda of establishing economic entomology as a scientific field. In this way, it successfully established itself as an intermediary displaying the pragmatic value of science.