N. S. ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



"Some village Hampden that with dauntless breast 

 The little tyrant of his fields withstood." 



find at least a vigorous voice if not effective action. 



The Hessian fly has for many years taxed the United States annually $40,000,000; 

 the cotton-boll weevil $30,000,000; the codling moth $15,000,000,000; the chinch bug 

 $7,000,000. To these add the gipsy and browntail moths, the San Jose scale and the 

 like, and the amount will soon amount high towards the billion dollars. 



From Deuteronomy 28:38 we read of the ancient experiences of the East: 



"They shall carry much seed out into the field, 



"And shall gather little in; 



"For the locust shall consume it." 



The year I moved down to Halifax from Pictou,188 \a cloud of locusts, two thousand 

 miles wide, crossed the Red Sea, eating up every green blade visible. And only eight 

 years before, in the little island of Cyprus, not far from the coast of Palestine, over 

 1300 tons of locusts eggs were collected and destroyed. Now, instead of sitting supinely 

 under a supposed judgment, we endeavor to discover the real cause, which enables us 

 already in many cases to prevent or abort the incidence of old time plagues. A. know- 

 ledge of the truth of nature sets us free. 



Ealand says in his "Insects and Man": 



"It is fortunate for man that the insect world is divided against itself; 

 "except for this check the human race would be extinct in five or six years." 



Huxley estimated that a single green fly would in ten generations, providing all 

 conditions were suitable, produce a mass of organic matter equivalent to five hundred 

 million human beings. 



From the Proceedings of our own Entomological Society during its first year you 

 can estimate how much Nova Scotia is taxed each year by several of these petty ty- 

 rants of our fields— and that is only a small part of the cost; for they not only destroy 

 human food but human energy and human life as well as useful animal life. 



Fourth, the proper study of the relation of the cause and effect in the insect world 

 is one of the easiest introductions to the understanding of the characteristics of natural 

 law. It emphasizes the importance of accurate observation for the discovery of truth. 

 Things are not always what they seem. Belief in a falsehood will inevitably bring its 

 own punishment. The truth alone can make us free from the penalties of ignorance. 

 No matter how innocently, righteously, or wrongly we may place ourselves in the 

 course of the stone just about to fall in virtue of the law of gravity, we may be ground 

 to powder. 



In other words, one who lives in God's world must know God's laws, conform his 

 conduct to them, or suffer the inevitable penalty. Such an introduction to the work of 

 Nature's God, and its subsequent extention, is equally important (if not more so) to 

 the scholars and leaders of men, as to those in the humbler planes of life. 



For reasons of which these are only suggestions I hope all our teachers may interest 

 themselves in this sub-department of nature study, when they can so easily obtain a- 

 bundant hints and aids at the expense of so small an annual membership fee as that fix- 

 ed for the Entomological Society of Nova Scotia — one dollar for several dollars' worth 

 of popular as well as the most important entomological literature of our own country. 



There is the patriotic side of it. I recognize this in all our teachers who come to 

 Truro during their vacation to prepare themselves for more effective teaching in the 

 elements of science so necessary not only for our rural schools, but for those of our towns 

 and cities. For our population we have the best attended runal science training schools 



