TEACHING OF FXONOMIC NATURAL HISTORY. 58I 



bearing upon the opening up of the country's natural resources. 

 One of those departments of knowledge is Economic Natural 

 History. 



The preventable losses individual farmers sustain through 

 the depredations of insects, rodents, carnivora, and plant plagues ; 

 and the terrible annual mortality in stock due to insect-borne 

 diseases, profoundly affect the finances of the Union, and seriously 

 retard progress generally. 



Dwellers in towns are apt to regard with more or less indiffer- 

 ence the losses sustained by the countr}^ in these ways ; little 

 thinking that they have a direct bearing on their lives, and those 

 of their children. 



Any and every measure which can be brought to bear to 

 reduce these losses should be prosecuted with the utmost vigour 

 of which we are capable. South Africa's people are losing 

 millions sterling annually from preventable causes. A large 

 proportion of these losses can slowly but surely be overcome by 

 teaching our school children Economic Natural History, and 

 encouraging practical lines of research work. We can no longer 

 afford to muddle along, as in the past. South Africa is capable 

 of sustaining an infinitely larger population, and every branch of 

 science v/hich helps towards this end should certainly not be 

 neglected ; and the teaching of Economic Natural History is one 

 of the most practical of thost branches of science. Until the 

 prevailing ignorance in this department of knowledge is dis- 

 sipated, w'e shall make little real, lasting progress. 



Beyond isolated articles in various journals, and references 

 here and there in a ifew books, there is no literature on South 

 African economic natural history. The Kafifir and Hottentot 

 traditions and beliefs, with those of illiterate Europeans, are 

 handed down and accepted as facts ; and no systematic sustained 

 efforts are made to counteract these erroneous and harmful 

 beliefs. 



Isolated eft'orts are being made by a few school Principals 

 W'ho realise the importance of teaching economic natural history; 

 but their efforts are severely handicapped because of the dearth 

 of suitable literature on the subject. Until the teacher is pro- 

 vided with the raw material of facts by specialists, he can make 

 little or no headway. The efforts of teachers are. in consequence, 

 confined to imparting general natural history knowledge which is 

 of no economic value. Moreover, from lack of suitable literature. 

 teachers themselves are often agents in the dissemination of 

 erroneous information. A teacher in a first-grade school taught 

 her class that the bag worm and the Geko Lizard are highly 

 poisonous. That the Death's Head Moth has a sting, and is 

 capable of inoculating a man with a fatal dose of venom. Scores 

 of such errors, and analogous instances, have come under my 

 observation. 



Insects breed with almost unbelievable rapidity, and the 

 damage they do to crops, fruit trees, the natural pasturage, and 

 native forests, is stupendous. Birds are the natural enemies of 



