23 
the enormous returns from intensive agriculture—in reality only 
another term for unusually efficient farming. These returns are 
possible because the greenhouse grower is able largely to manu- 
facture his environment, and to prepare his soil as he wants it; 
thus adapting his soil to the crop instead of the crop to the soil. 
hen this intensive farming is in wider use the United States 
will be able to support many more millions of pat than at 
present.” 
Insect Pests and Birds—During the summer of 1918 a great 
deal of damage was done by the defoliation of forest trees on 
Bear Mountain and throughout the Berkshires. The injured 
trees included maples, beeches, and birches in the northern section 
through Charlemont, Cummington, and Worthington. The 
ravages of this insect were very destructive in 1917 and still 
worse in 1918. Theoretically it is possible to control or check 
the injury by spraying, but in actual practice the cost, over wide- 
spread areas of forest, is prohibitive. The SaefOMi ay insect is 
FHeter ae He guttavitta, popularly known as “saddled promi- 
nent”’ or “antlered maple caterpillar.” In a letter to the editor of 
the Recorp, Dr. E. P. Felt, New York State Entomologist, gives 
a very timely and important suggestion as to the importance of 
the conservation of native birds as the natural enemy of insect 
pests. Dr. Felt writes: 
“There is little that can be done under average forest condi- 
tions owing to the fact that spraving is too costly. I have, how- 
ever, used these outbreaks to call attention to the fact that our 
native birds are among the most effective natural checks upon 
leaf-feeding forest insects and, in connection therewith, urged 
better protection for them. You may be interested to know that 
a considerable reduction in bird life since about 1898 appears 
to have been followed by increasingly frequent and severe defolia- 
tions of forest areas.” 
The announcement was recently made in the British Parlia- 
ment by the president of the Board of Agriculture that active 
steps have been taken with a view to the establishment at Cam- 
bridge of an Institute of Agricultural Botany, the primary func- 

