STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 187 



not get around to do it. Poultry are very useful in a garden. 

 But it is a fact that if you send down East and buy a package of 

 seeds that are new and very choice, and if you dig up a nice 

 place for them, you will find, if there is an old hen and her 

 chickens running loose, that she is bound to find that particular 

 place, and she will dig them out in a hurry. But if you will let 

 the chickens run and tie up the old hen, j^ou will not find that 

 trouble with those choice seeds. Usually the hens do more good 

 than harm. The natural food of the hens are the very insects 

 which are most troublesome to us in the garden. One year I 

 had a fine lettuce bed that was badly infested with cut- worms; 

 but the hens soon found it out, for I let them run the most of 

 the time. They went to work, and from appearances had soon 

 destroyed it, and you wouldn't have given ten cents for an acre 

 of it, after they had been on it for a little while. The cut-worms 

 would come in the night and cut off the tops, then they would 

 go under the surface of the soil; but the hens did not have to go 

 very deep to get the worms. The lettuce came out all right, and 

 I made some money out of it, whereas but for the hens I would 

 have had no lettuce. There are some kinds of hens that I like 

 better than others. Take the Leghorns and they will wander a 

 good ways from the barn for their food. I don't think the Brahmas 

 are quite as bad to scratch as some, but if they do get at it they 

 are apt to break down the plants a good deal worse than others. 



ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Mr. Harris. I would like to speak of a matter of interest to 

 the society. Last night we accepted the resignation of E. J. 

 Mendenhall, as entomologist of this society. We have no pro- 

 vision in this State for the appointment of a State entomologist. 

 Insects are doing an immense amount of damage, a little here 

 and a little there, and their numbers are rapidly increasing. It 

 strikes me that it is high time that we should petition, and, if we 

 cannot do that, we should get on our knees to these solons and 

 beg of them to secure the services of an entomologist who shall 

 divide his time in the study of the habits of insects, and in ex- 

 periments for their extermination. He should imj)art informa- 

 tion for the benefit of every farmer, and there should be provi- 

 sion for annual and semi-annual reports, and they should be sent 

 broadcast, as well as to have this information published in the 

 newspapers. I want something more done than to publish such 



