1904 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 41 



As a rule most of our insecticides are applied in the liquid form, but with- 

 iv the last two years dust-sprayers have been used in some orchards. The 

 value of dust-sprays is not definitely known; some experimenters openly op- 

 pose their application on the ground that they are not nearly so effective as the 

 liquid sprays, while other experimenters strongly advocate their use. It is 

 possible that dust-sprays can be used to advantage in wet weather when the 

 foliage is wet and the ground is too soft to allow the heavy liquid spray out- 

 tils to be employed. 



I must not conclude this address without referring to the educational side 

 of the work of this Society. In the first place, it is the duty of the Society 

 to take the lead in educating the public as to the best means of combatting 

 the insects which prey upon the products of the country. This must be done 

 irtelligently ; by this I mean that in any treatment the why as well as the 

 how should be kept in mind. Recent insect scourges have done much to 

 educate the producers of the country ; but it must be acknowledged that even 

 in the presence of these enormous annual losses the farmers, as a body, stand 

 apathetic. They will take action on minor matters which involve only a few 

 hundreds of dollars, but will do nothing when thousands of dollars worth of 

 products are involved. As a community, the farmers of Ontario require to 

 waken up to the tremendous losses they are annually sustaining. They are 

 making many efforts to cheapen production and to cheapen transportation, 

 but what efforts have they made to prevent these tremendous annual losses of 

 millions of dollars? Education is required. Surely, it is not too much to 

 expect the farmer who has to deal with enemies which produce such a loss to 

 acquaint himself with the habits of the pests which work him so much injury. 



Many of our most prominent fruit-growers have become experimenters, 

 and an experimenter, you know, is usually a live, wide-awake man, with great 

 influence in his community. The members of this Society should esteem it 

 a privilege to help along the good work ol enlightening the people regarding 

 the wonderful world of insect life. The Department of Agriculture is gen- 

 erous to us, and, what is better, is sympathetic. It understands the difficul- 

 ties of our work, and knows how small the army of workers is. It expects, 

 t-owever, every member to do his duty, for it must give an account to the pub- 

 lic of the sum placed at our disposal. 



Prof. Slingerland, in a recent article in the Cornell Countryman, ad- 

 vances a powerful argument for a better diffusion of insect knowledge. He 

 shows that ''it costs the New York farmers more than twice as much to feed 

 tleir insect foes as it does to pay their share of the cost of maintaining the 

 schools for educating their children." If this is true for New York State, 

 it 13 equally true for Ontario. Arguments like this one are needed to make 

 thfc farmer take an interest in a matter which is vital to his welfare. 



In the second place, this Society should take a leading part in the new 

 educational movement, called Nature-study, and help to usher in the time 

 when every child will have an acquaintance with his surroundings and take 

 pleasure in the world of Nature which a beneficent Creator has provided; 

 when the method of instruction in our schools will be more rational ; and 

 when the schools will send forth students equipped for their life work, pre- 

 pared for complete living. 



Power as well as culture should be the result of our education, for ''edu- 

 cation for culture alone tends to isolate the individual, while education for 

 sympathy with one's environment tends to make the individual an integral 

 part of the activities and progress of its time." 



The study of insect-life we entomologists believe to be a valuable Nature 

 Study. It is interesting; it is a practical study, that is, one which can be- 



