296 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Sept. 



The fecundity of insects makes them formidable as enemies 

 to man when they attack his crops. I shall quote a few illustrations 

 of this fact from entomological records : The loss sustained in 

 the turnip crop, in Devonshire, in 1886, was not less than 

 £100,000. This was caused by individuals of the genus 

 Haltica, or turnip flea, belonging to the Beetles. 



The loss sustained by the hop growers in England, when the 

 Aphides, or plant lice, prevail, is great, the difference to the 

 revenue in the amount of duty on hops being often as much as 

 £200,000 per annum. 



The editor of the American Entomologist writes: — " Taking 

 one year with another, the United States suffers from the depre- 

 dations of insects to the annual amount of three hundred millions 

 of dollars." 



The Canada Farmer says, to take one single instance : — "We 

 are all familiar with the frightful losses occasioned by the wheat 

 insect in past years, which, for a time, almost prevented the 

 sowing of fall wheat throughout the most fertile portion of 

 Canada. How many thousands, may we not say millions of dollars, 

 were thus lost to the country ? Take, again, the apple crop, 

 which is rapidly becoming one of great importance to the 

 Province; this very year (1868) about ono-half of the apples 

 grown in Ontario have a worm in the core, — the larva of the 

 codling moth." 



And now another insect, in the shape of Pieris Rapce, threatens 

 destruction to our cabbages and other vegetables. I have heard 

 of its ravages as far west as Chateauguay, so that it is now 

 spreading westward, on the opposite side of the St. Lawrence, as 

 well as this. The question to be answered is, — Can we do 

 anything to stop the ravages of destructive insects? Most 

 assuredly we can, to a great extent. 



The following extracts will serve to illustrate what has been 

 done and is doing in the neighboring States with regard to 

 injurious insects. 



The Canada Farmer says: — "During the last year or two 

 State Entomologists have been appointed in Illinois and Missouri. 

 For many years skilled Entomologists have been employed, at the 

 public expense, in New Jersey, in Massachusetts, and at Wash- 

 ington. For twenty years Dr. Fitch has been hard at work, as 

 State Entomologist in New York, with what success the following 

 statement will show: — " At a meeting of the New York Agricul- 



