60 AUTOBIOGRAPHY [CHAP. ix. 



I requested permission of two of my scientific friends, the 

 Rev. T. A. Preston, one of the masters of Marlborough 

 College, and much interested in phenology (i.e. t observation 

 of natural phenomena) ; and Mr. E. A. Fitch, Secretary of 

 the Entomological Society, to allow me to add their names 

 as referees. To 'this they kindly consented, but with the 

 stipulation from Mr. Preston that he did not wish to 

 co-operate further. I believe I may say with regard to Mr. 

 Fitch such a very small amount of communication took 

 place that it would not have been worth while to mention 

 the matter, excepting pro forma, on account of the names 

 being recorded. These were soon removed from succeed- 

 ing reports as unnecessary. The pamphlet was widely cir- 

 culated and the request for observations was responded to far 

 more cordially than could have been expected. Notes 

 regarding insect appearances, together with observations 

 of their habits, and of practicable methods of prevention, 

 were forwarded by observers who were qualified both as 

 technically scientific and practical workers from localities 

 scattered over the country as far north as Aberdeenshire in 

 Scotland and south to Hants and Devonshire in England. 

 In fact the communications were quite sufficient to show that 

 the plan was approved of from an agricultural point of view, 

 and might be continued hopefully. In after years I was 

 told that it was very well received by the press. I have been 

 greatly indebted since both to the agricultural and general 

 press, but at the time it did not seem to me to be peculiarly 

 warmly welcomed, nor I think was it likely to be, until it 

 had more to say for itself. The pamphlet was not of many 

 pages ; the knowledge of the great mischief caused by insect 

 pests, and the need of prevention of their ravages, was 

 not spread abroad as at the present day, and I was not able 

 at first to utilise to the best advantage the information sent 

 as I had no working reports of my own to help me as to 

 examples of the best methods of arrangement. z 



1 To such of my readers as possess some portion only of the early 

 series, it may be of interest to point out that the observations, up to 

 those for 1880 inclusive, were arranged, not as afterwards, as detached 

 papers, placed alphabetically under the heading of the names of the 

 crops to which they referred, but under the numbers given in the 

 successive preceding guide lists issued for the use of observers as for 

 instance, "6, Anthomyia ceparum, Onion fly;" or "25, Abraxas grossu- 

 lariata, Magpie moth" (fig. 9). 



These were arranged numerically, from " i " onwards, all the observa- 

 tions on one kind of insect attack being arranged successively in a 

 long unbroken paragraph under the selected number, together with 

 the name of the pest. For want of better knowledge of the requisites 



