95 



and contains a great amount of important information. The report is 

 designated as No. 1 upon this subject, but No. 2 has, unfortunately, 

 not yet been published. The occasional bulletins issued by the Queens- 

 land Department of Agriculture, giving an account of the agricultural 

 conferences held in different districts of the colony, show a verj^ live 

 interest in the warfare against insects, and this has been particularly 

 the case since Prof. E. M. Shelton, an Englishman by birth, but since 

 his early boyhood a resident of America, and long engaged in agricul- 

 tural teaching and experimental work here, was employed by the 

 Queensland government as instructor in agriculture in 1890. The 

 Department has begun the j)ublication of a series of bulletins giving 

 the results of recent experiments made at the American agricultural 

 experiment stations, edited by Prof. Shelton, in which late entomolog- 

 ical information is given. 



South Australia. — The first work on injurious insects in South 

 Australia was done by Mr. Frazer S. Crawford, a practical man of 

 wide reading, who interested himself for some years before his 

 lamented death in the study of insects and fungus j)ests. He read an 

 important paper, under the title of "Insect and fungus pests," before 

 the first congress of agricultural bureaus of South Australia in March, 

 1890, illustrating the paper by careful drawings done and engraved by 

 himself. It is likely that, had Mr. Crawford lived, he would have been 

 appointed official entomologist to the colony of South Australia. Since 

 his death, however, a vivid interest in the subject has been kept up, 

 largely through the interest shown in the matter by Garden and Field, 

 an important agricultural newspaper j)ublished at Adelaide, the editor 

 of which, Mr. W. C. Grasby,has visited this country, and is very appre- 

 ciative of the work which has been done in the United States. The 

 government viticultural expert, Prof. A. J. Perkins, is also a man of 

 some entomological knowledge, although his researches have mainly 

 been connected with the subject of insects injurious to the vine. 



Victoria. — In August, 1890, a conference was held at Melbourne, 

 Victoria, with rei^resentatives from the board of viticulture, the council 

 of agricultural education, the different horticultural societies, and wine 

 and fruit growers' associations, for the purpose of considering means 

 for the supi^ression of insect pests injurious to vegetation; and partly 

 as a result of this conference and further agitation, Mr. Charles 

 French was, in 1891, appointed entomologist to the government of Vic- 

 toria, under the Department of Agriculture of the Colony. Mr. French's, 

 work is largely included in the two parts of an important handbook of 

 the Destructive Insects of Victoria, the first part published in 1891 and 

 the second in 1893. These reports are written in a popular style, and 

 much attention is given to means of destruction. Their distinguishing 

 feature, however, consists in their illustrations, which are colored, and 

 many of which are very lifelike. 



