PREFACE 



This book is designed for the use of orchardists, vineyard- 

 ists, farmers, and others interested in the subjects treated. It 

 is designed to convey practical information concerning some 

 of the species of insects injurious to the industries of cultiva- 

 tors of the soil, and those interested in earth produce generally. 



It has been my aim to free the volume, so far as was possible, 

 from technical terms, and I have retained the technical or sci- 

 entific names of insects only to aid the reader in reference to 

 scientific works. 



It must not be assumed that there has been any intention to 

 present this work as a scientific treatise, and I may be par- 

 doned for supplementing the statement by the information, that 

 I have never laid claim whatever to scientific education. My 

 advantages were limited in youth to a common school system, 

 and since that period I have, from time to time, pursued the 

 study of economic entomology, as opportunity allowed, up to 

 the year 1874. Since that date I have been enabled to engage 

 in extended practical investigations into the realm which before 

 I had knowledge of only by reading. 



I was led to the field of experiment and investigation through 

 my business. In 1874 I engaged in the manufacture, in the 

 City of Sacramento, of fruit boxes. The next year the codlin 

 moth appeared in some orchards, and the fruit of the country 

 was threatened. Naturally, its injury would affect my busi- 

 ness, and thus I was drawn to a consideration of means to pro- 

 tect it. I therefore entered upon the field of investigation, as 

 I found the text-books and treatises did not afford the desired 

 information — at least such as I was enabled to find in tlie lit- 

 erature of the subject. 



In 1878 I began to give the result of ni}^ inquiries to the 

 public through the columns of the daily and the weekly press. 

 Very few persons in this State, especially of those who should 

 have manifested the deepest interest at that time, paid any 

 attention to economic entomology. In time, however, through 

 the assistance of the Sacramento Record-Union and the Pacific 

 Rural Press, and some other journals, and the discussions 



