( xlviii_ ) 
éxample will, I hope, be followed by others, as an increase 
in our invested property, which is still very small, is one of 
the most pressing wants of the Society. 
The vacancy on the staff of the Royal Agricultural Society, 
caused by the retirement of Miss Ormerod from the honorary 
position of consulting entomologist, which she had so well 
occupied, has been filled by the appointment of Mr. Cecil 
Warburton, M.A., to the salaried office of zoologist, though 
it may well be doubted whether the Council can reasonably 
expect any one man, in addition to a knowledge of general 
Zoology, to be qualified to make the very difficult investi- 
gations on the habits of all kinds of insects injurious to farm 
crops which are required of an economic entomologist. And 
I must add that, as a practical farmer, as a gardener, and 
as a planter, my experience leads me to doubt whether, 
even when the life-histories of noxious insects have been 
thoroughly worked out, we shall be able in nine cases out 
of ten to apply that knowledge economically to their de- 
struction. In the case of valuable crops occupying small 
areas of ground it may sometimes be done, but rarely, if 
ever, in the case of generally cultivated and less valuable 
plants. And, as long as farmers and planters are not fully 
convinced of the efficacy of scientific preventive measures, 
which I personally may say, as a general rule, I am not, 
it would be impossible to expect such a general adoption 
of any measures which might be recommended for the 
destruction of insect-pests as could alone render them 
successful. 
The comparative activity in this branch of our science 
shown in the United States is very marked, and it is not 
too much to say that there is more done by some indi- 
vidual States of North America than by Great Britain. 
The use of insecticides in America has been adopted by 
farmers and gardeners much more largely in the United 
States than in England, on account of the much greater 
severity and more general attacks of insects, and the mea- 
sures which have been adopted by Professor Riley and his 
numerous assistants and followers have often been highly 
successful, 
