1905 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 33 



Dr. Fletcher, tlie chairman, in closing- the discussion, said that it was 

 evident that good results can be obtained in the contest with the San Jose 

 Scale by using the crude petroleum treatment on apple trees and the lime 

 and sulphur wash on peach and plum. 



EVENING SESSION. 



Wednesday, October 18th, 1905. 



A public meeting was held in the Massey Hall at the Ontario Agricul- 

 tural College, at 8 o'clock p.m., and was largely attended by members of the 

 Society, students of the College and Macdonald Institute, and visitors from 

 the city of Guelph. The chair was taken by Dr. Fletcher, the Vice-Presi- 

 dent. 



President Creelman welcomed the Society to the Ontario Agricultural 

 College and gave an outline of the different departments of work in it and 

 the affiliated Macdonald Institute. They might be regarded as forming three 

 main divisions : the College for training farmers' sons in all that relates to 

 agriculture; the Farm for growing farm products and carrying on experi- 

 ments in the cultivation of all manner of field crops, fruits and vegetables, 

 the raising of stock, etc. ; the Macdonald Institute, with its two-fold objects 

 of training teachers from rural schools in nature study and elementary agri- 

 culture, for which purpose 45 or 50 came three times a year, and of teaching 

 farmers' daughters the best methods of performing household work, such 

 as cooking, sewing, laundry-work, dressmaking, millinery, etc. 



Two of their departments of work could hardly fail to strike the average 

 man, these were Agronomy or Field Agriculture, and Animal Husbandry; 

 in the former, seeds of all kinds from all parts of the world are tried and 

 their suitability for this Province tested. Experiments have been going on 

 for some twenty years, some plants are found to be no good and are cast 

 aside, oihers are useful forms or improvements on those in ordinary cultiva- 

 tion and are duly propagated and made known as widely as possible. About 

 2,000 plots are employed for this purpose and careful records are kept of each. 

 The value of Animal Husbandry may be gathered from the fact that about 

 eighty per cent, of the produce of farms is fed to live stock; it is therefore 

 most important that farmers should know what is the best breed for his pur- 

 poses and how the animals should be most advantageously fed and treated. 

 In the spring two hundred farmers are brought here and shewn stock from 

 both the farm and the neighbourhood, in order that they may learn all about 

 them. 



Other departments that may be briefly referred to are those of Chem- 

 istry for the analysis of soils, food products, fertilizers, etc.; Physics; Bacter- 

 iology; Horticulture for testing all sorts of fruits and vegetables; Dairying, 

 a most important department, as it is. worth millions of dollars to Ontario 

 that the best butter and cheese should be made and exported; Poultry 

 raising, for teaching the best methods and so reaping the largest profits. 



The College is now visited in the month of June each year by farmers 

 and their families to the number of 25,000 to 30,000, who are brought here 

 from all over the Province by special excursion trains. Few of them 

 probably return to their homes without having learnt something that they 

 can turn to practical advantage in their own work. The College, too, is filled 

 with young men who are taking long or short courses of study, and who go 

 back to the farms with a training Ihat will make them more progressive and 

 successful workers, and who will influence for good all those in their own 

 neighbourhood. 



3 EN. 



