108 State IlorUcuUural Society. 



a spiritual relation to life giving a proper view and greater enjoyment 

 of life. There is a better understanding of the condition of growth 

 with the increased ability to understand and enjoy nature. The subject 

 is new and we hardly know the best plan for introducing it. There is, 

 however, enough knowledge now to make a beginning and then increase 

 this. The courses in the university will show a teacher how to make a 

 child understand plants and animals. 



ENTOMOLOGY AND HOETTCULTURE. 



Mary E. Murtfeldt, Kirkwood, Mo. 



It is in the field of horticulture especiaUy that economic or applied 

 entomology has achieved its most signal triumphs. Trees, shrubs and 

 berry plants afford a defined if not very limited area within and upoii 

 which to work. Moreover, most of the insect species depredating upon 

 them are comparatively large size, or appear in colonies, or in other ways 

 jeveal their exact location so that a remedy or preventive can be effect- 

 ively applied. Again, the fruit products are so valuable, proportion- 

 ately, that it has been found Avorth while to incur the expense of the 

 chemicals, apparatus and labor necessary for warding off or destroying 

 their enemies. 



In the case of field crops this has only in rare instances been found 

 practicable. However valuable our grains, it would not pay to spray 

 with Paris green or kerosene emulsion for chinch bug, Hessian fly or 

 grasshoppers. They can only be, to a certain extent, controlled by rotation 

 of crops, by the persistent use of the plow and roller and by other inten- 

 sive cultivation. In addition to this, birds, many small animals, preda- 

 ceous or parasitic insects and fungus diseases can be fostered and will 

 render good service, and upon these the farmer must rely for the most 

 part. In horticulture, however, as can readily be understood, direct 

 and specific remedies are perfectly practicable. But even here to obtain 

 the most satisfactory results, with least expense of matrials, labor and 

 wear of machinery, some knowledge of the b'fo liistories and habits of 

 the more prominent pests is indispensable. This is the ni;iiii object of 



