448 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



than any apartment under shingles. Trees that are wholly useless, 

 ornamental only, do not yield beauty. There is no sentiment in a 

 clipped juniper. A shade tree has ideas, and an apple tree is full of 

 them — of fond associations, and pleasant memories, which appeal 

 to every one, most strongly to the country bred. The fashion which 

 banished the apple tree from lawn and park was a vain affectation. — 

 Interior. 



ENTOMOLOGY IN 1895. 



J. S. HARRIS, LA CRESCENT. 



Although I have studied the habits of some insects to a limited 

 extent and have observed enough to know the difference between a 

 June bug and a black hornet by the sensation that follows too close 

 a proximity to an angry specimen of the latter, I do not pose as a 

 thoroughbred entomologist, or even know enough about the fascin- 

 ating science of " bug"-ology to warrant trespassing upon j'our val- 

 uable time with such a report as I am able to give. 



Everybody knows that we had a rather dry season in 1895, with 

 sufficient warmth for all fruiting purposes — and such a season is 

 generally considered favorable for the multiplication and fullest de- 

 velopment of most kinds of injurious insects, as well as the benefi- 

 cial. We had a plenty of bloom on cherry, plum, and apple trees 

 from the 25th of April until the 10th of May. During that period no 

 frosts occurred, and mornings the thermometer marked from 40° to 

 68° above zero. On every fair day during that time bees were work- 

 ing in the blossoms, and some days the trees were literally swarm- 

 ing with small flies. The result was that the blossoms were thor- 

 oughly pollenized and the set of fruit was immense. 



I am glad to note that there was a very great scarcity of the pest 

 commonly known as the potato beetle, which was very fortunate, as 

 the low price which the product is bringing would have made it un- 

 profitable to administer the usual remedies. The beetles that caine 

 out in the spring were too premature, and their early food was cut 

 short by frosts; many perished through starvation, and they were so 

 weakened by the long frost that their eggs and young larvae was 

 deficient and mostly destroyed by the lady bug and other para- 

 sities, that were reasonably plentiful. May beetles made their ap- 

 pearance at the proper time in unusual numbers, and as there was 

 a notable scarcity of birds that usually feed upon them, it may rea- 

 sonably be expected that in meadows and foul grounds that had 

 sufficient vegetable covering to induce the females to seek them as 

 proper places for depositing their eggs, they will in about two years 

 show a liberal crop of white grubs, and those who grow strawberries 

 should be careful to select ground for new plantations that in 1895 

 was kept in a clean state of cultivation. 



The codling moth and apple gouger were to be found in goodly 

 numbers, and, as is common in years of a rather short apple crop, a 

 large proportion of it was appropriated by them to be used in the 

 reproduction of their species. One sign that is somewhat hopeful 

 is that the extremely warm spells in September induced numbers of 

 the late broods to come to early maturity and transform into perfect 



