11 



she is when the frozen crust, in which she is usually enveloped, is 

 thawed away by the warm breath of Xature — and more especially to 

 demonstrate how delightful that particular branch of science, to 

 which I have devoted half a life-time, may be made to any -one, who 

 will keep his eyes wide open as he walks through his garden or Ijis 

 orchard. If I merely succeed in enticing away a single young woman 

 from her mawkish novelettes and romances into the flowery paths of 

 Entomology, or if I can only induce a single young man, instead of 

 haunting saloons and lounging away his time at street-corners, to de- 

 vote his leisure to studying the wonderful works of the Creator, as 

 exemplified in these tiny miracles of perfection which the people of 

 the United States call "bugs," I shall think that I have not written 

 altogether in vain. 



I have felt, of course, that the main object of this Report is, and 

 ought to be, the investigation of the history and habits of such Nox- 

 ious Insects, as are peculiarly troublesome in the Garden and in the 

 Orchard, and the suggestion of such modes of fighting these foes as 

 will be found to be practically most successful, I know that my 

 principal duty is to add in this manner to the profits of the Gardener 

 and the Fruit-grower, and thereby incidentally to add to the sum 

 total of the wealth of this great and growing State. But "man does 

 not live by bread alone ;"' and there ^re other pursuits, besides dollars 

 and cents, which are worthy the notice of every one. It is an excel- 

 lent thing to have plenty to eat and to drink and to wear, and to have 

 a good warm house over one's head — especially in the winter time in 

 JSTorthern Illinois. These wants of the body are of primary import- 

 ance, and must be, and ought to be, attended to by every man — 

 whether he be a day laborer, or whether he be a philosopher. But, be- 

 sides the body, every man has a mind, which requires food, just as 

 much as does the body ; and if we starve the mind and feed the body 

 fat, we are simply dwarfing and stunting that intellectual part of us, 

 by which alone we are distinguished from the beasts of the field. I hope 

 I shall be pardoned, therefore, if I occasionally indulge in short di- 

 gressions, which, though of no immediate bearing upon the main sub- 

 ject of the Report, seem to be calculated to arouse an inquiring spirit 

 in the mind of the reader, and gradually to introduce him to the 

 higher and more attractive and more intellectual departments of 

 Natural History. 



Several discoveries in Economic Entomology, made by myself 

 since I became connected with your Society through the action taken 

 by its Executive Board on the 21st of May last, were published at the 

 time in the columns of the now defunct Practical Entomologist, of 



