STATE HOETICULTUKAL SOCIETY. 137 



showed a taste for cultivated vegetation, and for many years Min- 

 nesota enjoyed a happy immunity from the worst species of inju- 

 rious insects. We even conceived and congratulated ourselves on 

 the idea that our cold winter and late springs would forever 

 exclude some of these from our borders. The fallacy of this 

 opinion is forced upon us every year as one after another we 

 recognize the grain and garden pests with which our sister states 

 have long been afflicted. The ways of insects are, in this 

 respect almost past findiug out. Entomologists are learning 

 that it is not safe to risk their reputations on the prediction that 

 certain latitudes are too high or too low, or certain situations too 

 wet or too dry, to be in danger from the ravages of this or that par- 

 ticular species. The only reliable conclusion is, that wherever wheat 

 is grown, will be found sooner or later, the various insects that 

 prey upon it ; and so with corn, potatoes, cabbages, apples and 

 other fruits. To this rule there are possible exceptions, but none 

 of importance occur to ray mind at this moment. 



Since it cannot then be denied that we are subject to this annu- 

 ally increasing loss of farm and garden products through the 

 depredations of these insignificant but potent foes, it is but proper 

 to give them some attention, and that we devise and discuss plans 

 for their extermination. And here I must repeat what I have said 

 before, that to fight insects intelligently and to advantage, we 

 must be able to recognize them in their different stages of develop- 

 ment and be familiar with their habits. If we know the latter, 

 we can often find them "off guard," and can destroy them by a 

 very small outlay of labor and money, otherwise, while a destruct- 

 ive species may be headed off, to some extent, "by main strength 

 and awkwardness," it is usually at a great expense of labor and 

 of druggist's supplies. 



I do not claim that the scientific entomologist is alone able to 

 suggest the best measures to be taken against destructive 

 insects, for the practical farmer or gardener, who has an 

 observing eye and a mind capable of logical deductions, will often 

 hit upon a better remedy than the man of cabinets and catalogues; 

 but the methods of prevention are usually devised by the latter, 

 and his aid is invaluable in enabling the unscientific observer to dis- 

 tinguish between insects whose work on grain or fruit or foliage 

 has the same effect, but whose habits are so entirely different, that 

 a remedy that would be effective against one, would be absolutely 

 worthless against another. 



