200 LETTERS TO DR. FLETCHER [CHAP. xix. 



tion confirmed, and then I mean to write to you again and 

 send a few more males. I found seven with hardly more 

 than that number of females ; also I found specimens of the 

 white stuff that Schmidberger observed the larvae fed on, 

 and I have asked Professor Bernard Dyer to analyse it 

 for me. He is a very kind as well as skilled helper. I 

 cannot find the least sign of disease about the attacked trees : 

 if the bark had been washed it could not be cleaner from 

 Scale or moulds of any kind, but the havoc is dismal what 

 my correspondent calls "a slaughter" of trees. 



We have now got the subject of Agricultural Entomology 

 regularly announced as one of the subjects (voluntary) for 

 examination of the Senior Candidates of our Royal Agricul- 

 tural Society of England. I have been trying to get this 

 arranged for some time, and I hope it will do good. 



I have drawn up the questions as practically, i.e., on as 

 practical points as I could. 



December 16, 1889. 



Your letter was hardly started this morning when I 

 received the confirmation from Mr. Oliver E. Janson 

 of my identification of the fresh supply of Shot-borers 

 from plum wood being quite correct, beyond doubt 

 X. dispar. So I have great pleasure in enclosing two 

 males and two females in a thin quill. They are 

 packed in fine bark clippings, which they have shredded 

 out themselves, so I hope they will travel safely. These 

 are from plum sterns, and in some cases they attack the 

 branches. I have just now written a letter to the Worcester 

 Herald, warning fruit growers to be on the alert, giving 

 as much practical advice as I could compress into reason- 

 able space, and especially recommending burning infested 

 trees. 



December 24, 1889. 



I think that Agricultural Entomology is moving forward, 

 but we are much hampered at present by various difficulties, 

 which I fancy you would dispose of very rapidly on your 

 side of the Atlantic. I suppose that in a sort of confidence 

 I may mention that by private liberality of a Scottish 

 advancer of science a lectureship of Agricultural Ento- 

 mology is being endowed at Edinburgh University, but 

 then comes the rather comical difficulty : Who ever is to 

 take the position of lecturer ? I am complimented by the 

 expression of a wish from the authorities who have the 

 election in hand that I should take it ; but then Lady 

 Professors are not admitted in Scotland. We know of 



