214 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



of the importance of minute, careful, and thorough investi- 

 gation into the sti'ucture, habits, and economy of the common 

 species. Most investigations in natural history, as in many 

 other branches of science, are made without any direct ref- 

 erence to their practical value, and hence we are too apt to 

 regard tliem as of no importance to the so-called practical 

 man. Yet if it were not for this groundwork of purely sci- 

 entific knowledge, the attempts to apply science to agriculture 

 would be useless. Even the scientific entomologists are ac- 

 quainted with only a fraction of the species of our New Eng- 

 land insects, and only the very smallest fraction of these are 

 known in more than one of their stages. The farmer can aid 

 these investigations in many ways, by his own observations 

 and by preserving specimens of those insects which seem 

 most injurious or beneficial. Insects frequently attack and 

 severely injure some crop for a whole season, without any 

 entomologist seeing a specimen or being able to determine 

 what it is — which of fifty thousand different bugs it may be — 

 and simply because no one was enough interested or thought 

 it of enough importance to save specimens for examination. 

 And specially should children be encouraged to observe and 

 study insects and other animals. Aside from the knowledge 

 they acquire, the cultivation of the powers of observation and 

 discrimination, which are so important in all the practical 

 operations of life, amply repay all the expenditure of time 

 and trouble. While the whole study of animals, in all its 

 departments, is neglected in our schools, and teachers are as 

 ignorant on the subject as their pupils, we can expect little 

 knowledge of insects among farmers. Botany is now taught 

 in many of our schools, and its importance as a branch of 

 study is beginning to be recognized on every hand. Why 

 should we neglect the even more important study of animals ? 

 Most children are naturally inquisitive and at once take an 

 interest in such things and very little encouragement is 

 needed. Much also may be done by the distribution of inform- 

 ation through the published reports of the Board. Some por- 

 tion of the time of these meetings could be devoted profitably 

 to discussions in regard to injurious species, and valuable iu- 



