114 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



destroyed at the total outlay of nine thousand seven hundred 

 dollars.' (From the Mass. Crop Report). This would mean, 

 accounting for the variation in the number of the caterpillars 

 per nest, the destruction of from 15,000 to 30,000 caterpillars for 

 each dollar's outlay. 



A Bounty Put upon Winter Nests. 



Much can be done by local interests. One example will serve 

 for an illustration. Last winter in Portsmouth, N. H., the city 

 improvement society placed $50 with the Superintendent of 

 Schools, who paid five cents a dozen for winter nests. Hun- 

 dreds of nests were brought in by the children and burned in 

 the school furnace. And the children on our side of the river 

 were envious because the Fates had not been generous to them 

 also. 



Instruction, in Public Scliools. 



You had at your meeting last year a valuable and interesting 

 discussion upon nature study and related subjects. There is 

 time here only to suggest the need of this phase of education 

 from the economic standpoint. It would be a simple matter to 

 teach in an elementary way a few things about the important 

 insects in the vicinity. A little observation and a little reading 

 would prepare any teacher to do this. A single lesson would 

 enable a child to distinguish the winter nest of the brown-tail 

 moth from the webs of the fall web-worm and tent caterpillar or 

 from the various cocoons which are attached to leaves. All 

 these things are brought into Kittery with the question "Is this 

 the brown-tail nest?" and the fact that many people within the 

 infested district do not know what to look for suggests the need 

 for preparing the children of Maine to watch intelligently sus- 

 pected areas for the occurrence of this pest. If nothing else 

 were accomplished, it would be worth while to have every child 

 know at least that the insects are not "just bugs that happen to 

 be around," but forces of vital importance both for good and for 

 evil in the agricultural interest of his State and nation. It seems 

 rather a pity to leave a few such things as the relation of the 

 white grub to the May beetle a mystery to be solveid in a college 

 course. 



