230 LETTERS TO DR. BETHUNE [CHAP. xx. 



fruit industry is increasing so much, that more information 

 is needed for growers ; but I do not feel sure I should have 

 had courage to begin it, if some one had not written to me 

 that he purposed bringing out a book on insect pests, and 

 would like the use of my figures to illustrate it ! It oc- 

 curred to me that when he was about it he might like my 

 letterpress also ! So I have set to work and I have got to 

 about p. 224. 



There are more of the rarer attacks about than usual 

 this year Atomaria linearis at mangolds, for instance. 

 This morning I heard from Messrs. Laxton, of Bedford, 

 that they have gained a complete victory over that destruc- 

 tive pest, the Strawberry ground beetle, or beetles, I should 

 say (in this instance cockchafers, fig. 58). They bought a 

 multitude of pudding basins and sunk them in the straw- 

 berry beds, baited with sugar and water, and tempting 

 solids, and the beetles were caught in hosts, sometimes by 



Magnified ; natural length, one twenty-fourth of an inch. 

 (After Taschenberg.) 



FIG. 56. PIGMY MANGOLD BEETLE, ATOMARIA LINEARIS, STEPHENS. 



the half basin full. I think this is real good news for 

 strawberry growers. 



I wish I knew better how to manage my work. I do not 

 think I should have any difficulty in keeping the real work 

 in hand, but there is so much correspondence on subjects 

 which, indeed, one can hardly call even allied, and yet I 

 suppose one should return a reply, and that adds uselessly 

 to the work. How well you must know this sort of thing ! 



I was grieved at the loss of our kind Dr. Lintner, 1 and 

 I saw my good friend Mr. T. P. Newman about some not 

 wholly inadequate notice being inserted in the " Ento- 

 mologist." I could from my heart record his exceeding 

 kindness to his weaker brethren. 



July 28, 1899. 



Your very kind letter to me of a few weeks back was a 

 sincere grief to me in its information of your abiding sorrow 

 under the heavy affliction with which it has pleased our 



1 State Entomologist of New York. 



