THE ANNUAL MEETING. 129 



the College? That is what we want of you. Well, I am making an effort to 

 do that very thing. But as suggested in what I have said above, we are not as 

 well situated to give this a fair trial as are you here. We have no rose chafers, 

 we have no peach trees, and, indeed, the concentration of diilerent plants is not 

 such as to make the experiment show forth its possibilities. But if you will 

 enter into this matter I will promise to examine the game and faithfully report 

 the importance of the catches that you may make. And further, if the method 

 proves of no practical value, which, of course, may be the case, I will condole 

 most sorrowfully with you; yes, and rejoice, too, that one more point is sat- 

 isfactorily settled. There is one more point not mentioned in the above. Your 

 streets would be lighted just as they do it in Paris. The press of the country 

 would herald forth the fact that South Haven Avas lighted by electricity. 

 These items would teem with such terms as push, enterprise, excelsior, and 

 mirahile clictu. 



NEW INSECT PESTS. 



Perhaps no year has been so noted for new insect enemies in the United 

 States as the one just past. A newly-imported weevil, Phytonomus pundatus 

 Fab., has been terribly destructive to the clover in New York. Acres of this 

 most valuable forage plant have been ruined. Another moth, Crambus vul- 

 givagellus, a common moth in our State, has developed a very unwelcome 

 habit in New York. It has done great damage to the meadows of the Empire 

 State. Of course we do not know when these enemies may essay to blight our 

 prosperity, but as "sufficient for the day is the evil thereof," I will only speak 

 at this time of such pests as have invaded our goodly State for the first time in 

 destructive numbers. The little grain moth, which is playing havoc in the 

 bins of some portions of our State, is not a horticultural pest, and so may rest 

 at peace at this time. The enemy which all of us as horticulturists are inter- 

 ested in, as its ravages touch our pockets, is the corn-worm, or cotton-boll 

 worm of the South, Heliothis armigera. This moth has long been destructive 

 in the States south of us, but has not attracted attention here till last year, 

 when it was brought to my notice as doing no little damage to the corn. This 

 year it has renewed its mischief, and has managed some way to become scat- 

 tered well over our State. This insect, as the cotton-boll worm of the South, 

 is next in its destructiveness to the real cotton worm, Aletia argillacea. As an 

 enemy to the corn crop, in the west and southwest of our country, it is almost 

 as much to be dreaded, especially in dr}', hot seasons. In Kentucky whole 

 fields of corn have been entirely ruined by this pest at several different times. 

 In southern Illinois it has often been very destructive. In Kansas, during the 

 dry season of 1860, it is said to have reduced the corn crop in some entire 

 counties to one-fifth the average yield. These larvse also feed on tomatoes, 

 pumpkins, l^peas, hemp, tobacco, and lucern. These latter plants, however, 

 are not favorites with it, but are preferred to starvation. This moth is a cos- 

 mopolite, as it is found not only in our own southern and southwestern States, 

 but it exists everywhere in Europe, in Japan, Australia, and all through South 

 America. The fact that it has not visited the North before, — I say North, as 

 this year it is found not only in JMichigan, but in New York, and even Ontario, 

 — is probably that our seasons are usually too cold for it. If this is correct, 

 then we may expect to be troubled with this pest only occasionally a year. 

 Yet we fail to see why they paid our State a visit in 1880, as the summer was 

 very wet and not very warm. 



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