66 state: POMOLOGICAI, SOCIETY. 



while living on a farm all his life, with thousands of such trans- 

 formations going on about him and he was blind just because 

 no one had ever told him when and where and how to look. 



Children will see many things which vitally affect the success 

 of the farmer. For instance, one day last winter we were hav- 

 ing a lesson on the blue jay. I asked if anyone could tell me 

 anything interesting about the bird. One boy said that a short 

 time before he was out in their orchard with his father and uncle 

 and they saw a blue jay very busy among the apple trees. His 

 father said he was going in and get his gun and shoot the bird 

 because he v;as "budding the trees," but "after father w^ent in I 

 just crept up close where I could see and I found he was eating 

 caterpillar eggs. He would twist them right off with his bill 

 and eat them and I just hung some ears of corn in those trees 

 so as to keep him there." This same boy in summer walked a 

 mile to bring me a Luna moth which he found on a butternut 

 tree. 



A little girl only four years old, brought me a piece of a 

 cabbage leaf, no larger than a silver quarter, which she had 

 picked in the garden, and asked me what it was upon it. Upon 

 looking closely I saw what seemed like a dozen short white hairs, 

 less than half an inch in length, standing erect and on the tip 

 of each one was a tiny, light green egg. Upon looking it up in 

 one of my books I found it illustrated and described as the eggs 

 of the Lace Winged Fly. The flies I had often seen in the 

 garden but did not know what they w^ere. These eggs hatch a 

 small w^orm^ or larva called the ''aphis lion," aphids are com- 

 monly called plant lice. And he truly was a lion for I kept one 

 under a lantern chimney and supplied him with leaves covered 

 with aphids and it was wonderful how fast he cleared these 

 leaves. These aphis lions at maturity spin a round cocoon in 

 vv^hich they develop into the dainty light green, lace winged fly. 



I noticed one Japan plum tree whose leaves were all curled 

 up from having their juices eaten by the aphids until the aphis 

 lions cleaned tliem off, then the new leaves grew out smooth and 

 perfect, presenting a gre?t contrast. These ought surely to be 

 cultivated in sections troubled by the pea louse, of which there 

 was much complaint last summer. 



A lady who owns a greenhouse once said to me, ''teach your 

 children about plant lice and ants." When I first began in my 



