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em and Middle States. Meanwhile the farmers are anxiously inquiring for means 

 of destroying the invader. Materials destructive to the insects, and said not to be inju- 

 rious to the plant or the soil, have been recommended almost without number ; but, with 

 the exception of Paris green, they have either been very insufficiently tried or found in- 

 operative. That compound of arsenic and copper, therefore, remains naturally the fa\our- 

 ite, notwithstanding its dangerous qualities and the possible deleterious effect it may 

 produce on the fields after long use. 



Entomologists and other scientific men are often asked : " Why do you not give us 

 another remedy against this destructive insect 1 Are you baffled, with all your boasted 

 progress in learning, by the invasion of a wretched little bug ?" No, my friends, we are 

 not baffled by the wretched little bug ; but in our endeavours to teach you how to dispose 

 of it in such a manner as to protect your crops, we are embarassed by your own failure to 

 grasp the magnitude of the problem which you have set us to solve. Had you indeed 

 comprehended the warnings given by my lamented friend B. D. Walsh, on the first in- 

 jurious appearance of the insect, and since repeated by many Entomologists, you would 

 have insisted several years ago that the subject should be investigated with a power of in- 

 quiry proportioned to its importance, and you would have received such information as 

 might, with proper and well-directed industry on your part, have prevented much loss. 



However, I do not wish to speak of the past ; it is gon*, and its errors cannot be un- 

 done. Let us rather inquire what shall be done m the future. 



The first thing, then, is to cea.se calling upon science for a remedy, when science and 

 empiricism have probably already given you many remedies, concerning the application of 

 which I will have a word to say by-and-by. Science can help you and will help you only 

 when you have begun to helji j'ourselves. How, then, can we begin to help ourselves 1 

 [ hear you ask. First, then, there should be a Scientific Commission, selected by com- 

 petent scientific authority for their merit and not for their political influence. Politicians 

 have had too much control over our agricultural intyests, as you all have reason to re- 

 member with regret. This Commission should be sufficiently large to subdivide the sub 

 jects committed to them in such manner as to thoroughly investigate the habits and times 

 of appearance in different districts of the great agricultural pests, the effect upon them of 

 all the cheaper materials which have been or may be judiciously suggested as destr03nng 

 agents, and the proper times and manner of applying them. The members of the Com- 

 rnission should also receive sufficient compensation to warrant them in giving as much 

 time and labour to this investigation as may be required, even to the temporary aban- 

 donment, if necessary, of their other scientific or secular pursuits. No such task can be 

 properly performed and completed by the solitary labours of State Entomologists under- 

 paid and overburdened with work. Only by association of several such careful ob- 

 servers and investigators can a worthy, useful result be obtained for the suppression of 

 several of the most formidable pests. 



2. This information being procured, should be tabulated as far as possible, or at least 

 reduced to a compact form for easy reference, and widely published iu newspapers and 

 also in pamphlet form. 



3. By the distribution of this information and by appeals through the newspapers and 

 agricultural journals, as well as by addresses at meetings of farmers and others interested in 

 agriculture, it must be impressed upon the public mind that all individual efforts for the 

 suppression of these pests are frequently futile. Only combined and consentaneous ac- 

 tion over large tracts of country will be effective. 



Now, while I am prepared to believe that when these facts are made known to the 

 farmers they will immediately see the importance of the suggestion for unanimous and 

 simultaneous advance upon the enemy, yet without legislative aid it will be quite impos- 

 sible to secure the organization requisite for an effective onslaught. It will therefore be 

 necessary for the citizens interested to command their representatives, either in Stati- 

 Legislat^ures or in National Congress, to prepare proper laws for the destruction of these 

 pests at stated times, to be determined and recommended by the Scientific Commission. 

 These laws will be not only cheerfully obeyed by every intelUgent farmer, but I know that 

 the farmers as a class will be glad to have such laws enacted and enforced with penalties 

 for their neglect. Those disposed to help themselves and each other can only thus be 

 protected against an ignorant and indolent neighbour, whose thriftlessness would other 



