98 STATE POMOIvOGICAI, SOCIETY.' 



bright little girl that would enjoy the beauties of that wonderful 

 moth which is sleeping inside that brown cocoon as well as my 

 children, if she were only taught. 



Four or five years ago, when I began the study of entomology 

 with my children, I did not know the name of a single caterpillar 

 or butterfly, but the last two years have been exceptionally good 

 ones for studying a few kinds of caterpillars. Nearly every one 

 has such a dislike to caterpillars that this would not, at first, seem 

 a very interesting study, but we have found it extremely so. 

 It is surprising how many kinds there are, as soon as one begins 

 to watch them. Not only my children, but the men of the 

 family, and even the neighbors, when they find a peculiar cater- 

 pillar bring it to me. These can be easily watched in the house 

 by placing them under a screen or glass, or in a glass jar. We 

 often have several varieties under wire fly screens. Each cater- 

 pillar has its own particular variety of food on which it feeds, 

 so it is necessary to notice upon what plant it is found feeding, 

 and keep it supplied with fresh leaves of its kind until it enters 

 the pupa state. When they are ready for this change they stop 

 eating and anxiously crawl about their cage as if searching for 

 something. For those varieties which enter the ground for 

 their transformation, a box of earth should be provided. Other 

 varieties roll themselves inside of leaves, or spin a cocoon in 

 some corner. Still others, like the Asterias, Antiopa, Atlanta, 

 and Archippus, suspend themselves from some object. 



I have already taken so much time that I will not begin upon 

 flowers, minerals and birds, which are equally interesting if not 

 more so. If you once begin the study of. any of these branches, 

 you will be surprised to see how interested you will soon become 

 and how the knowledge seems to be lying all about you, only 

 waiting to be appropriated. 



If you begin with minerals, your friends will learn of it, and 

 give you specimens. Neighbors will tell you of something inter- 

 esting upon their farms. You cannot take a walk, or go near a 

 ledge or stone wall, without seeing something interesting. 



If you begin the study of birds, there will be the same attrac- 

 tion. You will see new birds, hear new notes, and find nests 

 which you never saw before, although there have been the same 

 about you for years. There seems to be a law of mind attrac- 



