FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 91 



Kev. Mr. Crawford. — I have been afflicted with catarrh a great many years, 

 but the two years I resided at St. Joseph I suffered less from it than I had in 

 twenty years. 



At the close of this discussion the meeting adjourned until 2 o'clock P. M. 



THE AFTERXOOX SESSION 

 Was opened by Prof. A. J. Cook, who delivered the following lecture, entitled 



FRUIT OK IXSECTS — WHICH? 



I have no question that, were I gifted enough to correctly state the annual 

 loss to our State and country because of insect depredations, I should find few of 

 you sufficiently credulous to accept my statement, though all of you have too 

 good reasons to expect large figures. Some of our productions, for instance our 

 plum crop, have been generally given entirely over to our enemies, and hence 

 are little thought of. Other of our crops are so constantly raised on thirds, the 

 insects taking one or two-thirds, that we have ceased to possess any idea of a full 

 yield, and so take no heed of our loss. Still other of our products are cut off, 

 withered, or dwarfed, and tlie cause is like the wind ; we see the effects thereof, 

 but know not whither it cometh. Hence it is that nearly all, even of those 

 most closely interested, have no conceiition of the magnitude of their losses from 

 these causes. Wliy, take the apple tree and its product riglit here in our State ; 

 I know of no less than six insects which seriously aifect its vigor by despoiling it 

 of foliage ; four are engaged with too good success in hastening death by mining 

 the trunk ; at least two are sucking the vital fluid from the roots, while no less 

 than five are demonstrating, by actual works, that they appreciate good apples, 

 and mean to gratify their appetites, man's interest notwithstanding. Seventeen 

 on one. Isn't it time to demand fair-play? I have no doubt that could we 

 rescue the spoils from all our insect banditti for three successive years, they 

 would more than cancel our national debt. Surely such a statement ought not 

 to be received with indifference, nor Avill it by the thoughtful and enterprising. 

 That Avas rather a startling remark which was made by one of our country's 

 wisest pomologists at the recent meeting of the Ohio Horticultural Society at 

 _ Toledo, that it is a fact already patent to the far-seeing, and would soon be gen- 

 erally accepted, that the best success with all our fruits, even apples, demands 

 the planting of a succession of orchards. I at once thought that proper atten- 

 tion to this insect question would greatly broaden the intervals of planting. 

 Many orchards in our State have gone on giving ever-increasing returns for fifty 

 years, and single trees for more than one hundred years. Nor need we doubt 

 but that, with wise precaution, such experience may be oft repeated. 



But it is often asked : What does this important question demand for its 

 solution, and has past experience given us any hope that it may be solved? 

 I briefly answer : Earnest, persistent study and research by the most capable 

 men ; and secondly, that our practical men, those directly interested, should all 

 take " the bull by the horns." In other words, that there should be such in- 

 terest elicited, through grange and club, that every man in every neighborhood 

 of our State should give battle in lines already marked out, and adopt new ones 

 or better ones so soon as they wore suggested by the investigators. As well say 

 that all the children of a neighborhood would be gentle, courteous, and beautif u 



