116 THE REPORT OF THE No. 19 



THE NORTH-WEST (CANADA) ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



Annctal Meeting. 



The third annual meeting of the North- West (Canada) Entomological Society was held at 

 Lacombe, Alberta, on November 9th, 1901. The chair was taken by the Vice-President, the 

 Rev. M. White. Many letters were received in support of the meeting, among them being a 

 letter from Dr. James Fletcher, Dominion Entomologist, of kindly advice to the young people 

 of the newly-formed Lacombe Field Club, and a letter from Mr. C. W. Peterson, Deputy-Com- 

 missioner of Agriculture, N. W.T. Mr. Peterson expressed particular satisfaction at the num- 

 ber of agi'icultural societies throughout the North-West Territories which had decided to encour- 

 age the Entomological Society by affiliating with it. This, he said, is a step iu the right 

 direction, and that if agricultural societies would more generally support such institutions they 

 would more nearly fulfil the objects contemplated in the law under which they were organized. 

 An earlier letter from Mr. Peterson was also read advocating the enlistment of the sympathy of 

 the school teachers and trustees throughout the Territories in support of the movement. 



Among those present at the meeting were two of the teachers of the Lacombe school and a 

 number of the pupils of the school. 



The Chairman, after some opening remarks, called upon the President, Percy B. Gregson, 

 for his address, which we give as follows : 



President's Address. 



" Ladies and Gentlemen, — We have now completed the third year of our existence as a 

 society, and it has become the custom to review the progress we have made during the preceding 

 year, and to consider what good we have done. By thus taking stock, as it were, of our con- 

 duct, we gain some light on the course we should pursue in the forthcoming year. In this vast 

 new country a society of any sort to become popular has to enlist the sympathy and interest of 

 the settler, and to do that it must show that its labors are identical with the farmer's welfare. 

 When this is clearly understood the Society becomes a popular institution ; and this is one of 

 the reasons why we have annual meetings. The chief work of the Society is to study and en- 

 courage throughout the land an interest in insects and plants and their habits, and a knowledge 

 of the remedies used against such as are injurious. The time has passed when such a study was 

 looked upon as an evidence of lunacy^ and I believe we shall see, within the next few years, the 

 introduction into every school in the country of a system of nature study. The young people 

 must be encouraged to take an active interest in the subject. The study of insects is emphatic- 

 ally one which develops the powers of observation. 



Some idea of the practical value of this subject to the farmer may be formed from the fact 

 that the damage done by insects last year to the farming and gardening industries in North 

 America amounted to many millions of dollars, and a glance presently at the list of injurious 

 insects for 1901 will show that the Territories are sharers in this great loss. Farmers as a rule 

 are wide-awake enough to anything which threatens their pocket, though it is strange how in- 

 different many of them seem when their crops are threatened by insects or weeds. They will 

 allow, for instance, the wholesale destruction of turnips and cabbages by insects, when a few 

 cents worth of hellebore and kainit, or Paris Green would have saved much of the crop. And 

 farmers are just as culpable in the matter of weeds. 



The question cherefore arises, — " How does the Society propose to assist the Farmer ?" and 

 in answering this let us first see what we have already done. 



In the Society there are two branches of study, — Entomology and Botany. Under Entomo- 

 lof^y is included insects (noxious, beneficial, harmless, etc.,) and under Botany is included 

 the study of their food, and the study of weeds and other wild plants. Firstly, then, addresses 



