lo Aug., 1908.] Insect Pests in Foreign Lands. 481 



and an order authorizing police magistrates to devote the fines inflicted 

 to that purpose would he of great ^■alue. The money would then be 

 retained and utilized in the district affected, where it is usually moat 

 needed, instead of being lost to it. 



The good effects of utilizing the services of the children in the manner 

 above indicated are twofold. In the first place ever\- one who has had 

 anything to do with children and with plants knows how strong the 

 natural destructive tendency of children is, and how much damage it can 

 cause when uncontrolled. By directing this destructive tendencv into 

 proper chaiinels we gi\e their natural faculties full plav and divert them 

 from the useful shrubs, trees, birds, nests and the like on which they 

 might otherwise be exercised. After a time the child should come to 

 regard certain plants as he does snakes, i.e., as something to be destroyed 

 on sight. When he comes to man's estate and has land of his own, pro- 

 claimed plants will not be likely to thrive upon it. It is from an educa- 

 tional point of view% and by inculcating the spirit that certain plants, like 

 certain animals, are natural though insidious enemies of man, that the idea 

 of offering rewards to school children for their destruction is likely to 

 prove of most use. 



Nevertheless in France, and in other countries also, the services of 

 children have been largely utilized to keep down or suppress plant or 

 animal pests, and the direct good effects of children scouring the high- 

 ways and byways for weeds are not to be under estimated. It is along 

 roadsides that the problem of weed suppression is most difficult, and it 

 is also along the roads that weeds spread most readilv from one district 

 to another. I have estimated that a plant of ragwort allowed to flower 

 freely in a newlv cleared district may, under favorable conditions, suc- 

 ceed in establishing 500 offspring besides being itself perennial. The 

 20,000 plants of ragwort collected and destroyed by the .school children 

 'n a short time at Leongatha. and at an unfavorable period of the vear, 

 lepresent a potential 10,000,000 plants in the following .season. Fair 

 sized plants of ragwort run about 10 to the lb. when thoroughly dried, 

 so that 10,000,000 plants repre.sent not far short of 500 tons of organic 

 matter which, in the form of sheep or mutton, would be of considerable 

 value, instead of a dead loss to the district. 



INSECT FESTS IN FOREKIN LANDS. 



{Continued from page 2yg.) 

 Sixth Progress Report by Mr. W. W. Froggatt, F.L.S., F.E.S. 



Constantinople, 29th April, 1908. 



I herewith furnish a brief report upon my work in Enghuid and while 

 crossing through Europe to this place. As soon as I arrived in London 

 I called upon the respective Agents-General of the States I am represent- 

 ing. I then presented m\ credentials to the Chief of the Entomological 

 Sfaff, who took me round and introduced me to all the officers of the 

 Zoological Department, and placed all their immen.se collections of 

 material at my disposal. Here I spent all the spare time at my disposal 

 going through the Diftera with Mr. Austen to see all their species of 

 fruit flies, and though the Economic branch \yas discontinued last \ear, 



6945. Q 



