STATE HOKTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 325 



Minnesota, drawn, as it is, on a broad basis, makes provision 

 for the study of entomology. Section 3 of this law states that 

 the natural history survey shall include: first, an examination 

 of the vegeta])le productions of the state, embracing all trees, 

 shrubs, herbs and grasses, native or naturalized in the state; 

 second, a complete and scientific account of the animal kingdom 

 as properly represented in the state, including all mammalia, 

 fishes, reptiles, birds and insects. But as this law also calls first 

 for the geological survey proper, it is obvious that most of the 

 efforts at present are concentrated on this work so as to bring it 

 to an end; and the work of natural history can only receive 

 secondary attention. Moreover, a complete and scientific ac 

 count of the animal kingdom, including the insects, is an un- 

 dertaking that will require a great deal of time. The result of 

 such work is the best and fullest that can be got, and this state 

 is to be congratulated for having made provision for the under- 

 taking of such a work. 



But the farmer, horticulturist, and many other industries to 

 which insects are found to be destructive, can not afford to wait 

 for such results. What they mostly want is the study of special 

 cases as they present themselves from time to time. In a state 

 that is being so rapidly developed as Minnesota, great changes 

 must annually be bi^ought about in that large tracts of land are 

 put under cultivation, others drained, or the timber taken off. 

 Such changes we know tend to destroy the balance of nature, and 

 bring about abnormal conditions, that makes it possible for a 

 species of insect, that before, probably, was hardly known, all 

 of a sudden to increase in such great numbers as to become des- 

 tructive, as is well known in the case of the Colorado potato- 

 beetle and many others of our injurious insects indigenous 

 to this country. Every year also brings new insects here from 

 other parts of the country, that often prove quite as destructive. 

 What you therefore want is not so much the collecting and 

 naming of insects from the state, as an investigation of such ab- 

 normal cases, with special study of the life-histories and habits 

 of such insects that are found to be injurious, not only to the 

 horticulturists and agriculturists, but also to the forester, stock 

 breeder, and many other industries to which the destruction by 

 insects is more or less extensive; such observation to be pub- 

 lished for immediate distribution to all it may concern. 



Much valuable service could also be rendered by determina- 

 tion of insects sent in from all part of the state, and by giving 



