150 president's address — SECTION G. 



to stimulate immensely the manm-e trade in New South Wales ; 

 one company alone selling, in 1892, 3,000 tons of hi^h-class manures 

 where they sold only 300 tons in 1890. Mr. Guthrie has also 

 devoted much attention to the analysis of several supposed poison- 

 ous plants, notably the Darling pea f Stcamsona galeglfolia), and 

 has encouraging indications of being on the track of the cause of 

 the trouble to sheep from this peculiar plant. The chemist's 

 experiments with the Babcock milk-tester, and his analysis of 

 ensilage, milks, artesian waters, wheats, fruits, wines, and ashes 

 have been of great service to different classes of our farmers. 



He is now engaged in determining the composition of the 

 " gummy " substance — which is not, however, a gum — that Dr. 

 Cobb has been investigating and has called vascuUn. 



The Botanist has done much since the creation of the department 

 to educate our farmers and their children on the economic value of 

 our indigenous grasses and other forage plants. He has published 

 a census of the grasses, giving a full description of the principal 

 195 grasses of New South Wales, with twenty-four exotics that 

 have been naturalised. Excellent drawings of sixty of these have 

 been reproduced by photography, and have been of great service to 

 manv persons studying this most useful order of plants. Examples 

 of these drawings are submitted herewith, as indicating a A-aluable 

 means of educating our students by means of wall pictures and 

 plates in text books. Mr. Turner has also jiublished a vohmie of 

 the forage plants of Australia, giving exact information with 

 excellent drawings of ninety of the saltbushes and other fodder 

 plants that have been so viseful to our pastoral industry. He has 

 also published a series of illustrated articles dealing with supposed 

 poisonous plants, numerous weeds, and new economic crops that 

 might be profitably introduced into Australia. 



The work of the entomologist (Mr. A. S. Olliff) has been of 

 special value to the orchardists, who as a class needed special 

 instruction on insect pests and the best means of combating them. 

 He has made good collections of scale \ns,eci& f Coceid(Bj destructive 

 to fruit trees, and one of gall insects f Hymenopteroiis, Dipterous, 

 and HomopterousJ affecting fruit and timber trees. With the aid 

 of a collector, over 18,000 insects, including a large number of 

 parasitic and predaceous enemies of the injurious insects them- 

 selves, have been got together and suitably mounted and displayed 

 for the instruction of those concerned. Small cases of the most 

 important insects — with complete life histories — have been sent 

 round to the agricxdtural shows of the colony, and have aroused 

 great interest in thousands of fruit growlers, who are now taking 

 vigorous measures for the destruction of their insect enemies and 

 the conservation of their friendly lady-birds f Orcus chalyheus, 

 Orcus Australasia, Halyzia galbula, Leis conformis, Verania 

 frenata, Vedalia cardinalis, and others) which do such serviceable 

 work on the different scales and aphides that infest our fruit trees. 



