THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. - 213 



brought up for discussion the subject of the disease known as " Silver-top" 

 in hay, which is believed to be caused by a species of Thrips, and 

 requested the members to investigate the matter in their various 

 localities. The only remedy at present suggested is the plowing up of 

 old hay-fields which are found to be the most seriously attacked. The 

 depredations of Grasshoppers during the past season were next consider- 

 ed. Mr. Fletcher suggested that much might be done to reduce their 

 numbers by cutting the hay about the 20th of June, if practicable, and 

 thus preventing the maturity of the insects by depriving them of their 

 food before they were able to fly to a distance for it. Mr. Denton 

 reported that the Chinch Bug had been observed in the Township of 

 Delaware, near London, and that it was likely to become very injurious 

 if measures were not taken to counteract it. 

 The meeting adjourned at 5.30 p.m. 



EVENING SESSION. 



In the evening the Society held a public meeting in the Council 

 Chamber of the City Hall at 8 o'clock, at which there were about sixty 

 persons present, including the Hon. C. W. Drury, the recently appointed 

 Minister of Agriculture for Ontario ; Mr. John Lowe, Deputy Minister 

 of Agriculture for the Dominion of Canada ; Prof. Saunders, Director of 

 the Experimental Farms of the Dominion ; Sir James Grant, M.D.; Mr. 

 R. B. Whyte, President of the Ottawa Field Naturalists' Club ; Mrs. 

 Macleod Stewart ; Mrs. R. B. Whyte, Mrs. Davidson, and several other 

 ladies as well as a number of farmers and gardeners from the city and 

 neighbourhood. 



The proceedings of the evening began with an able and practical 

 address from the President, Mr. James Fletcher, of Ottawa, upon 

 " Insects Injurious to Crops." (The address will be published in full in 

 the Annual Report of the Society.) The speaker stated that it was a 

 well-known fact that at least one-tenth of all the crops grown in this 

 country was destroyed by noxious insects. In order to combat these 

 insects it was necessary to know their life-histories, and to acquire and 

 disseminate this knowledge was the main object of our Entomological 

 Society. He described in simple terms the two systems of structure in 

 insects, in accordance with which one class live by sucking out the juices 

 of plants and the other by biting and gnawing the substance, and related 

 the various means adopted to counteract the ravages of each. In his 

 position as Dominion Entomologist he found it possible to give to nearly 



