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The terrible ravages committed by insects upon vegetation in this 

 and other countries has claimed and received a considerable share of 

 attention of late amongst scientific and practical men in this country ; 

 but not more, in fact not nearly so much as the importance of the 

 subject demands, and we hail with much satisfaction the inauguration 

 in London of a movement amongst agriculturists and others to bring 

 the matter more prominently before the country and the Government, 

 so as to have it thoroughly investigated, and some practical means 

 devised for eradicating the injurious insects which prey upon our 

 crops, and to procure the necessary aid of the Government to enforce 

 the application of proper rules and remedies for the suppression of 

 their attacks when they appear in such vast numbers as to cause 

 serious injury to any of earth's products which are necessary to man's 

 existence and the nation's welfare. 



In this, as in several other important branches of national economy, 

 our British Government lags woefully behind that of most other civi- 

 lized countries, in initiating and fostering a thorough knowledge of 

 the scientific principles which are imperatively necessary to form 

 sure basis from which the devastating inroads of the multitudinous 

 host of insects injurious to the labours of man can be practically and 

 successfully combated. So great is the reproductive powders of many 

 of these predatory pests, and so insidious their attacks on vegetation, 

 that the devastation committed by them too often amounts to a 

 national calamity and causes an incalculable amount of loss, such as the 

 ravages of locusts, ants, and other insect plagues in tropical countries, 

 the Colorado potato beetle and Eocky Mountain locust in the 

 United States of America, and the grape phylloxera in the vineyards 

 of Europe. 



Such widespread and deadly attacks on vegetation as those men- 



VOL. I. M 



