STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 47 



this thing means. I wish more might go there. They have not 

 got half as many as they ought to have. 



Now I don't know that I can emphasize what I have said any 

 more than I have, but there is one other incident which happens 

 to occur to me just now. I enjoyed it very much, this particular 

 incident. Quite a number of the cecropia cocoons have been 

 sent in to me, in one case in particular a letter was written and 

 a postage stamp was inclosed for a reply — " What is this? Is 

 this a brown-tail moth nest, or what is it ? " It was a beautiful 

 cocoon, a large one and a very handsome one indeed, and I took 

 pleasure in writing back what it was. That which gave me the 

 most pleasure was what followed. One of my neighbors has a 

 very sweet little girl in one of the primary schools, wide awake, 

 looking for all the good things there are in life, and she came 

 over to my house one evening. I said to her, " Ruth, I have got 

 something for you." Well, she looked up as bright as could be, 

 and I asked Mrs. Knowlton, who was near it, to hand her that 

 cocoon. The little girl looked at it with a great deal of interest 

 and pleasure and said, " I heard something about this the other 

 day and I didn't quite know what it was and I am glad to find 

 out." I told her how she must take care of it, and I did a little 

 differently from what some of the Washington city teachers do. 

 The principal of the kindergarten school there wrote me a little 

 while ago, and she called attention to the custom which certain 

 teachers had of sending west and south for cecropia cocoons 

 to use in their schools as object lessons and then giving them 

 to the children. The children examined them, carried them home, 

 and then instead of destroying them as they ought to, had the 

 fun of seeing the moths emerge from the cocoons and fly away 

 to suit themselves, and nobody knows how many sections have 

 been cursed by the introduction of these insects, which, however 

 beautiful they may be, are harmful to fruit trees. 



Now I wish to emphasize just this — I have already said it — 

 help the department in every way you possibly can. Seek 

 information from them. Give them information if you can. 

 Let us all pull together and we will hold back this plague for 

 some years to come and I hope permanently. 



