ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF ONTARIO. 



itself, quietly, without creating very much stir, is not a condemnation of the Society, but, 

 to my mind, the very fact that it is able to live after years of this quiet life shows it has 

 that true vitality which will enable it to exist and to do good work in this world. (Applause) 



We are not very many who are gathered here to-night, and what we have to say will 

 be more in the line of a quiet talk between ourselves, more or less of a conversation one 

 with another, with regard to the work in which we are interested. I propose to talk in 

 regard to general agriculture and in connection with my remarks I may have something 

 to say in regard to entomology and its relationship to agriculture. I do not consider 

 that there is any more important question to be discussed or studied by city people, as 

 most of you no doubt are, than this subject of agriculture. Some one may say that agri- 

 culture ought to be reserved for farmers and farmers' sons and families, and that the 

 bringing in of the subject of agriculture at a town or city meeting is a great mistake. 

 But there are two or three reasons that we can offer in connection with this, that are quite 

 sufficient to warrant us in introducing a subject of this kind. In the first place we all 

 admit that this country is first and foremost an agricultural country, that the progress of 

 this country depends more upon agriculture than upon any other industry and that just 

 as agriculture rises or falls so will the general prosperity of this country rise or fall with it. 

 When the farmer is prosperous, has good crops and good prices, the people in the towns 

 and cities feel the effect ; and depression in the country is felt very soon in the city. 

 Then again there is an old idea, now being rapidly removed, that agriculture after all is 

 not a very interesting subject. The principal reason of talking to. night is to endeavor to 

 show to you, in an indirect manner it may be, that after all there is a great deal of 

 interest in agriculture for the people of our towns and cities. 



There has been more or less talk of teaching agriculture in the schools and some 

 have said it should be taught in the rural schools, but there are many people in this 

 country who have looked into this question and who after thinking over it carefully have 

 come to the conclusion, that agriculture should be taught in our city schools as well as in 

 the country ; that there is as much need for the education of our city pupils as for the 

 rural in the subject of agriculture. Perhaps I may be able to show you, in a few cases 

 at least, that agriculture is not that dry hum-drum business that many of us have some- 

 times thought it to be, but that connected with it are some of the most important and 

 interesting questions that have presented themselves to the mass of human beings. We 

 have heard a great deal of late in regard to many of the new questions, the new looman 

 for instance has filled column after column of our city papers. Now it struck me in 

 looking around for a subject that possibly I could not take anything better than this 

 " the new agriculture.'" (Applause.) 



What are the changes that have taken place, or what are the forces that are present 

 that have given us and are giving a new agriculture ? 



The first is the great increase of transportation facilities. Those of you who are 

 older than the speaker here to-night will remember the time when transportation between 

 the old countries of ihe world and this country was very slow. To-day we have the great 

 continents connected by lines of steamers that run as rapidly as some of the ac3ommo- 

 dation trains upon our railroads. Nearly every continent in the world is belted by one 

 or more great trans-continental railways. Even Russia is about completing a great 

 trans-Siberian railway, Africa will be the next country to have a trans-continental rail- 

 way. The result is that the world, so to speak, has been shrunken up and although we 

 have these continents at distances of five to eight thousand miles apart and although we 

 have great stretches of country such as this North America of ours, still with the im- 

 proved steamship lines and railways, these countries have been so closely brought 

 together that practically this world is now simply one great continent or one 

 great country. What has been the effect of that? The effect has been that 

 the great consuming markets have been Drought closer to their sources of sup- 

 ply and it is not very much of an advantage now to be stationed a thousand, 

 or two, or three, or four thousand miles nearer to the great consuming centres of 

 the world, than some other countries. For instance Canada, because she is only some 

 four thousand miles from England has not a very great advantage over Australia which 



