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and Nebraska, and Western Missouri, and Western Iowa; and cer- 

 tainly their habits, as stated in the above two extracts, agree very 

 remarkably with those of the Eocky Mountain insect. But who is 

 to blame for this missing link in the chain of evidence? Not the 

 editors of the Prairie Farmer; for no doubt they printed faithfully 

 all the intelligence that their correspondents sent them. Not "E. S,. 

 H." and ''0. C"; for they spoke according to the lights that had 

 been vouchsafed to them. Not the Entomologists; for we have been 

 preaching for the last ten years on the practical importance of our 

 favorite branch of Science. The blame, in reality, lies with our 

 wretchedly defective School System, which persists in tearing the 

 brains of young children to pieces with such useless acrobat-feats of 

 the intellect, as are dignified by the name of "Mental Arithmetic," 

 while it utterly neglects to instill into their minds the commonest 

 rudiments of Natural History. Hence we are perpetually dinned 

 with nonsensical theories about "THE borer," "THE fly," "THE 

 bug," "THE grasshopper," etc., etc., as if there was respectively but 

 ONE species of borers, of flies, of bugs and of grasshoppers within the 

 limits of the United States ! Whereas in reality there are hundreds 

 of distinct species of each of them, differing one from the other as 

 widely as a sheep from a goat, or a cow from a deer, or a horse from a 

 hog. Had but "0. C." of Washington county and "'E. S. H." of 

 Marshall county been familiarized in their school-days with these 

 simple truths, they would not have thought it sufficient merely to 

 chronicle the fact, that "THE grasshoppers" had done so and so in 

 their respective neighborhoods; but they would, in addition, have 

 sent specimens of the culprit insects to some competent entomologist 

 — Mr. C. V. Riley, for example, who at that very time was conduct- 

 ing the entomological department of the Prairie Farmer — and thus 

 it could have been decided with scientific certainty, to what particu- 

 lar species their grasshoppers really belonged. Would farmers but 

 make it a rule to adopt this course, whenever they notice any unusual 

 occurrence in the little World of Insects, they would not only put 

 moncv into their OAvn pockets by furthering our knowledge of Eco- 

 nomic Entomology, but they might, in addition, often subserve the 

 interests of pure theoretical science, by adding new facts to the great 

 store which has been already accumulated. When the scientific name 

 of an Insect has been once, no matter how, determined, the Farmer 

 can record for all future ages with scientific precision whatever he 

 knows about it; and the Farmer, be it remembered, is just as capable 

 as the Philosopher of observing the peculiar habits of any particular 

 species of Insects, and ordinarily he has much better and more fre- 



