34 INSECTS. 



of Canada lias undertaken the labor of giving a complete account 

 of the noxious insects of the Province of Ontario, and in doing 

 this must necessarily describe the most, if not aU, of those which 

 -are to be found in the other Provinces. This task will be accom- 

 plished in a series of Eeports, in which will be described in turn 

 the insects injurious to the several fruits and crops, and as inci- 

 dental to this, those insects also will be described which are of 

 service to the cultivator, by reason of their habit of feeding upon 

 those that are injurious ; so that, in time, every fruit grower, gar- 

 dener and farmer will be made acquainted with the habits of 

 their insect friends and foes, and with the best known methods 

 of combating the enemies. The Eeports which relate to insects 

 affecting fruits will be incorporated with the Eeports of the 

 Fruit Growers' Association, and placed in the hands of aU its 

 members, and those who wish to possess the fullest information 

 on this subject should carefully study these reports. 



In the earlier history of fruit raising in Canada, no serious 

 inconvenience was felt from the depredations of insects, and very 

 possibly in most of the newer settlements the same immunity 

 may now exist. But in all the older settled parts of the land, and 

 especially in those parts where the cHmate is most favorable to 

 fruit-growing, insects have been suffered to continue their labors 

 without any interference of man, and so to multiply their num- 

 bers that the injury they inflict is becoming, indeed has already 

 become, matter of serious moment. Yet most of our fruit grow- 

 ers content themselves with complaining, and put forth no active 

 efforts to lessen the evil. This arises partly from the habit, so 

 long indulged, of letting them alone, partly from another habit in 

 which they have been educated, of regarding the fruit crop as 

 of secondary importance, but largely from want of acquaintance 

 with their tiny foe, and of the weapons with which to fight it, 

 and the vulnerable spot at which to aim. Achilles, dipped by 

 his mother in the Styx, was made invulnerable in all his body, 

 save the heel by which she held him, and only he who had his 

 secret knew how to aim the arrow by which he fell. By the 



