FIFTY YEARS OF A SHOWMAN'S LIFE 



or any steps taken to bring under the notice of 

 those most interested how they might best combat 

 the many enemies so destructive to the well-being 

 of their live-stock and crops. 



With her own unaided pen and her own unaided 

 means she carried on for years, with the utmost 

 efficiency, a work which in many European coun- 

 tries, in our Colonies, and in America, was con- 

 ducted by departmental officials, ^nd at the cost 

 of the State. Early in 1877 she issued a brief 

 pamphlet, entitled Notes for Observations on In- 

 jurious Insects, with the object of exciting interest 

 in the subject and inducing others to communicate 

 to her their observations, following this up in the 

 autumn by the first of those valuable reports, on 

 injurious insects and common farm pests, which 

 for twenty-four years appeared annually from 

 her pen. In addition to this, she wrote many 

 manuals and handbooks upon the subject, which 

 were published at intervals. But what was most 

 apparent to the public may be said to have been 

 the least part of her beneficent work, for, be- 

 coming recognized as the great authority upon 

 such matters, daily applications for information 

 reached her from all parts of the world, and how 

 she could ever successfully grapple, as she did, 

 with her enormous correspondence was a subject 

 of constant wonderment to all who knew her. 

 When some special pest came to the front she 

 took it in hand, and issued, gratuitously and at 

 her own cost, thousands of leaflets of warning 

 and direction. In order better to disseminate 

 abroad her store of knowledge, she mastered half 

 a dozen foreign languages, including Russian, and 



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