122 THE REPORT OF THE No. 36 



The writer's acquaintance with Dr. Saunders began more than fifty years 

 ago when we were both young men, and soon ripened into a warm friendsip, which 

 has continued unbroken until now during all these years. In those early days, 

 .when the study of entomology was so difficult owing to the scarcity of books on tho 

 subject, we were in constant correspondence, helping each other in every way we 

 could, and spending each summer some days together, comparing notes, studying 

 specimens and making collecting expeditions. Many happy hours we spent together 

 in early morning tramps to tlie ponds and woods about London, and in the even- 

 ing, when his day's business was over, in examining the captures we had made. At 

 tliat time there were few in Canada who took the least interest in the objects 

 which to us afforded the keenest pleasure, but as time went on we found here and 

 there a congenial spirit, and were led on in 1863 to attempt the organization of an 

 Entomological Society. This was successfully accomplished during the following 

 spring, and last year the completion of half a century's work and progress was 

 celebrated by the jubilee meeting at Guelph. An account of the proceedings on 

 that occasion and the history of the formation and growth of the society have been 

 given in the November (1913) number of the "Canadian Entomologist" and the 

 44th Annual Report of the Society. In 1868 Mr. Saunders and the writer decided 

 upon making another venture and began the publication of the '" Canadian Entomo- 

 logist," to the first two numbers of which we were the sole contributors. For five 

 years the latter was the editor, and was then succeeded by Mr. Saunders, who 

 continued the management of the magazine until his removal to Ottawa in 1886. 

 Three years previously there was published in Philadelphia his notable book " In- 

 sects Injurious to Fruits," which is justly regarded as a classic by economic ento- 

 mologists. A second edition was issued in 1892, and the author had begun the 

 preparation of a third when his prolonged illness rendered him incapable of accom- 

 plishing any literary w^rk. A list of his published articles, bulletins, reports, etc., 

 fills six columns of the BibliograjJhy in the Transactions of the Royal Society of 

 Canada for 1894, and a large number have been added since. In 1881 he had 

 been appointed by the Governor-General of Canada, the Marquis of Lome, one of 

 the original Fellows of the Royal Society, and in 1906 he was elected President, 

 having thus risen to the .highest position of honour for scientific work that can be 

 attained in this Dominion. Twenty years ago it was said of him by an American 

 writer that "by painstaking study and observation he had risen to the topmost 

 pinnacle of fame as an entomologist, horticulturist and experimental agriculturist." 

 A very important change took place in the life and work of Dr. Saunders in 

 1886, when he was appointed Director of the Experimental Farms of the Dominion, 

 and left his home and business in London to reside in Ottawa. During the pre- 

 vious year he was commissioned by the Government to visit various Experimental 

 Stations in the United States and to report upon agricultural and experimental 

 work in Europe and Am.erica. In this new sphere, of labour he applied himself 

 with his wonted vigour, and in the course of a few years was mainly instrumental 

 in bringing these establishments into thorough working order and into a high 

 standard of excellence. Anyone who saw the Ottawa Farm in the autumn of 

 1866 — a large tract of bare land, with workmen busily employed in levelling, and 

 removing stumps and boulders with dynamite — and then visited it ten or fifteen 

 years later (as did the writer) could not fail to be impressed with the wonderful 

 work accomplished by the genius of Dr. Saunders in turning a waste into a scene 

 of beauty and a hive of industry. Here have been carried on under his direction 

 a great variety of experiments in breeding and feeding live stock, testing soils and 



