food is the first necessary of life, and fine fruit one 

 of its greatest luxuries, every question which con- 

 cerns their production deserves serious attention. 



Now it is well known that, every year, some un- 

 expected failure of crops, originating in the ravages 

 of the insect world, takes place ; — that the labors 

 of the farmer, and the hopes of the orchardist and 

 florist are continually destroyed by these minute and 

 subtle enemies; and that, often, local scarcity, and 

 sometimes individual ruin, is the result. With these 

 evils upon record, and continually coming under our 

 notice in one form or another, any one would fancy 

 that this portion of Natural History, at least, had 

 been well studied ; — that the forms and appearances, 

 the habits and economy of all these scourges of veg- 

 etation had been well investigated and distinctly de- 

 scribed. But, incredible as it may appear, no work 

 professing to give the horticulturist a right knowledge 

 of the animals, birds, insects, reptiles or worms, use- 

 ful or injurious to his labors, exists in our language ! 



It mostly happens, when a naturalist is applied to 

 for information on such points, by those who are the 

 immediate sufferers, and he begins to put the ques- 

 tions which alone can enable him to form an opinion, 

 he can seldom make out whether the thing complain- 

 ed of is a beetle, a fly, or a moth. He is told that 

 " it may have only two wings, though possibly it has 

 more ;" " it may have very short wings, but perhaps 

 none at all ;" and generally the sum total that can be 

 positively ascertained is that " the creature looks 

 very much like a gnih.'''' 



