STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. Ill' 



educatiou should have special reference to the occupation to be 

 pursued. Feed a boy's mind with dime novels and reading from 

 The Police Gazette and he will be a fit subject for your reform- 

 atory prisons. Give his mind horticultural food and the chances 

 are he will become a horticulturist, pomologist, or farmer. It 

 is said that first impressions on the mind of children are lasting 

 and carried all through life. Then decorate the walls of your 

 school rooms in part with instructive i)ictures of beautiful fruits, 

 flowers and vegetables as object lessons; remodel your text-books 

 by introducing in them practical horticultural teaching, and 

 your sons and daughters, with tastes refined and elevated, will 

 become producers of contented, hai^py homes and ornaments to 

 society, and our industrial organizations of the next generation 

 will receive the accessions they so much need. 



One horticultural writer says: "The best means for the pro- 

 motion of horticulture are those that will the most effectually 

 overcome the obstacles in the way. One obstacle is a lack of 

 taste for the business; another a lack of knowledge of the differ- 

 ent varieties of fruits and flowers and the most approved meth- 

 ods of culture." 



ENTOMOLOGY. 



Our entomologist. Prof. X. H. Winchell, in the report of last 

 year, made some recommendations that need your attention the 

 present session. They will be found on pages 296-7 of the report 

 ofthe Society for 1886. 



Entomology is closely related to the interests of all classes of 

 l^roducers from the soil. It teaches us how to guard our crops^ 

 from attacks and depredations of all insects, as well as the bene- 

 fits to be derived from our insect friends. I herewith present a 

 few extracts from a lecture given before the American Pomo- 

 logical Society, in 1886, by A. J. Cook, of the Agricultural Col- 

 lege of Michigan: 



"Prof. J. A. Litner observes that insects always impose a 

 heavy tax upon the products of man's labor, aud often manifest 

 a desire to wrest from him the entire results of a season's toil. 

 It has been estimated that each plant serves six species of in- 

 sects for food. The names are given of one hundred and seventy- 

 nine species of insects that are known to attack the apple. The 

 Hessian fly often lays tribute to $20,000,000 worth of wheat in 

 one year in a single state. The chinch bug has destroyed $75, - 

 000,000 worth of corn in a single season in Illinois. Thus we- 



