STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 83 



State Grange offered prizes for injurious insects and this sum- 

 mer we have made a collection of about one thousand specimens, 

 part of which is on exhibition in this hall. 



I expect we have furnished considerable fun for some of our 

 neighbors and friends. We have doubtless been called freaks 

 and cranks, but as Burdette has said, "A crank, my son, is some- 

 thing that makes the wheels go round and insures progress," 

 and I hope we are cranks in our own small ways. 



During Teachers' Summer School at East Pittston, in 1905, 

 Prof. Powers, Miss Thompson and I devoted considerable of 

 our time outside of school hours to collecting botanical speci- 

 mens. Prof. Powers organized a Nature Study Class, and 

 afternoons we took long walks through the fields and woods. 

 We carried trowels for digging our plants and vasculums for 

 carrying them. Prof. Powers led us through briars and over 

 stone walls, but he always knew where he was going and w'hat 

 he was going to find. 



^lost of my Nature Study has been field work and observa- 

 tions in the fields and woods. To study Nature one should be 

 out with the things of Nature. A book full of things some one 

 else has seen is not as instructive as having the little people 

 themselves tell one of their ways and homes. ' 



One of the best ways to study the life history of the butterfly 

 is to collect the caterpillar, feed it, watch it eat and study its 

 habits. When it has eaten all it w^ants. watch it go into the 

 chrysalis state. The Black Swallow-tail which feeds on the 

 carrots fastens itself to the side of some board or box. doubles 

 its head a little under its body and slowly turns into a brownish 

 chrysalis. The Polyphemus, a large green caterpillar which 

 feeds on the elm, w^eaves a covering for itself of fine white silk. 

 I watched one weave its cocoon last summer, and it wove a net- 

 work around itself first, a part of the time having to stand on 

 its head. Out of curiosity I began to pull the little silken 

 thread which it secreted from its mouth. After secreting about 

 two yards it refused to throw away any more, but it had plenty 

 left and soon completed its winter home. The silk hardened 

 when it had been in the air a short time and was as strong as 

 fine thread. In the spring it broke open the cocoon and came 

 out a moth. At first its wings were small and damp, but they 

 developed quickly and after being in the air a short time became 

 6 



