REPORT ON ENTOMOLOGY. 365 



Dakota, not by uncertain and often disappointing- raina or floods; 

 but by a simple turn of the wrist a valve is opened, and up from 

 the bowels of the earth the water comes and flows at your feet and 

 not in pelting storms upon your head. It follows your bidding- 

 through ditches or over the whole surface to the roots of your 

 trees, that in return stretch out their arms and wave you their 

 blessings. It is only a question of time when South Dakota will be 

 covered with beautiful groves wherever they are cultivated and 

 ■watered, and trees in return will stop the force of the winds, shade 

 the ground and prevent the rapid evaporation of moisture and so 

 ameliorate the inclemencies of a severe climate." 



REPORT ON ENTOMOLOGY. 



MRS. A. A. KENNEDY, HUTCHINSON. 



December 3, 1895, is at hand, the long looked-for time has arrived 

 at last. One year ago when we last met, the time appointed for the 

 next meeting seemed a long- way off; we counted the months, then 

 the weeks, then the days; it is with joy we meet again, and yet it is 

 with feelings of sadness we notice the vacant places some of our 

 members used to fill. We miss their pleasant smiles and words of 

 cheer, and as we scan the tables in the exhibit room, we notice 

 empty spaces there, also, where their fruit and vegetables were wont 

 to be piled in goodly array. And then as we remember that the 

 hands that placed them there are folded away, and the eyes that 

 glowed with enthusiasm as we listened with attentive ear to the 

 words of cheer and encouragement that came to our beloved society 

 from different parts of the state, are now forever closed, and that we 

 shall never see them more, then we are led to wonder who of us, 

 before this convention meets again in 1S1K5, shall like them have 

 passed be^-ond the bounds of time. And again we wonder after all 

 is over and we have made our last e.xhibit, how manj- of us will meet 

 to part no more, in a world where the inhabitants never say "I am 

 sick," but where we may pluck and eat of the fruit that grows on the 

 tree of life and talk of our failures and successes here. I sincerely 

 hope we shall all be there. There will be no need of reports on en- 

 tomology, no call for kerosene emulsion, no call for "Green's Ama- 

 teur Fruit Growing." but we "shall be changed in the twinkling of 

 an eye" from novices to scientific fruit growers. 



Our secretarj' wrote to me that I was to report on entomologj-. I 

 said to myself "What can I do with that?" Of course I know ento- 

 raolog-y pertains to insects, and I know that the honey bee is an 

 insect, and that it is a very busy little creature, and that it sips the 

 nectar from the flowers and converts it into a commodity thej' call 

 honey, and that I am very fond of it, and that it plays a verj' promin- 

 ent part in fertilizing our fruit by carrying pollen — but I think they 

 must have failed in their duty in this respect this j-ear (1895) for there 

 was no fruit. I know, too. that there is a little white moth that hovers 

 over the cabbage plants and deposits its eggs in great abundance 

 among the leaves, and presently we find the cabbage is filled with 

 worms; and when they have done all the mischief they can they 



