STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 289 



nithology and to these experts in forestry for instruction in these 

 matters, to lead on bravely in the work of education in these matters 

 Agriculture will soon become impossible unless the importance of en- 

 tomology is recognized and the people are educated upon these mat- 

 ters. As said by the professor the knowledge of this subject is not 

 carried beyond the few specialists who now take it in charge. 



I believe the terrible devastation of crops in Minnesota from chintz 

 bugs has been due simply to the encouragement of the shotgun on the 

 prairies. I have sometimes wished I had the power of the emperor of 

 Russia, that I could banish every shotgun in the land. 



Mr. Pearce. Mr. President, I agree with friend Gibbs. I will go 

 still further; I believe our legislature are enacting laws that are work- 

 ing destruction to the State in permitting the killing of our prairie 

 chickens. If they were suffered to live, I doubt if we would have suf- 

 fered seriously from the chintz bugs. 



There is a bounty on the pocket gopher, one of the best friends we 

 have. If I had ten thousand on my place, I wouldn't kill them, 

 [Laughter.] You may say they eat grain. Very little; they eat bug.9 

 and all kinds of insects. I have worked among striped gophers where 

 there were thousands of them. A little corn sprinkled around the 

 field will prevent their taking up the growing crop. I have seen them 

 fight over the pile of corn placed out for them to eat. With a peck of 

 wheat you can protect twenty acres of corn. Protect these little ani- 

 mals; encourage them; they are the best friends we have I never 

 kill one of them, not even a skunk. If we would stop killing these- 

 little animals, we would hear less talk of the destruction of our crops, 

 Mr. Harris. I am glad Mr. Pearce corrected himself by saying he 

 was a friend to the striped gopher, although the pocket gopher was 

 put here for a purpose and has given us a soil that beats the world. 

 I have been condemned for considering the pocket gopher more bene- 

 ficial than injurious, but I still think there is no animal more useful, 

 unless it is the common skunk. It is useful in destroying the larvas of 

 the maybeetle. I think so much of it, I have two specimens mounted 

 and placed where I can see them. 



There is one bird I think a good deal of, known as the crossbeak. 

 It is really fascinating to sit down and watch it bring the beetles to its 

 nest to feed its young. Last summer I was afraid I would lose my 

 patch of potatoes, but I soon noticed the birds were taking the bugs, 

 and I only lost a few hills in the whole patch. I have not used Paris 

 green for fear of destroying as many of our friends as of our foes. I 

 believe if we understood entomology more thoroughly it would be of 

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