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insects, should go to the task with minds previously 

 disciplined by habits of close observation and discrimi- 

 nation, and stored with the results of others' labors in 

 this department of science. Art is too long and life 

 too short to permit or justify unaided devotion to any 

 science. If a liberal and enlightened community make 

 the demand, our public institutions will no longer be 

 without the works of those who have preceded the 

 rising generation in these scientific pursuits ; and the 

 first principles of Entomology will no longer be omitted 

 among the elementary studies of the young. Let us 

 look to all branches of Natural History, and discover, 

 by a more intimate knowledge of them, wherein 

 through ignorance we have gone astray, and let us, 

 if possible, retrace our steps. Were the services of the 

 feathered race sufficiently known and duly appreciated, 

 the exterminating war now waged against them would 

 cease. But it is not to birds alone that we are indebt- 

 ed for diminishing the numbers of noxious insects ; 

 various quadrupeds, reptiles, and fish contribute to keep 

 them in check, some hving partially, and others entirely, 

 upon insect food. Among the advantages that may be 

 expected to arise from associations like yours, Gentle- 

 men, is the adoption of universal and simultaneous 

 efforts to repel and destroy noxious insects. Should 

 your own example and influence be ineffectual, it is 

 not unreasonable to expect legislative aid. If, in the 

 season appointed for the annual visitation of each 

 destructive kind, it w^ere to become an object of pur- 

 suit and extermination, and if every proprietor were 

 obhged to destroy the more common insects on his 

 own grounds, our gardens, nurseries, orchards, and 

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