42 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



and agriculture in particular ; and there is nothing that would 

 stimulate that more than the special study of natural history, 

 in connection with agriculture. 



Now, when I allude to that, I allude to a very comprehensive 

 field, for the natural history of agriculture embraces the knowl- 

 edge of all the larger domesticated animals — their anatomy, 

 tlieir physiology, the nature of their diseases — in fact, the 

 natural history of agriculture embraces that which forms the 

 foundation of the veterinary surgeon's science. Then it 

 embraces all that relates to those other animals, of less value, 

 and yet of considerable interest upon the farm — all the various 

 kinds of fowl, the economy of bees, and the characteristics and 

 habits of insects injurious to vegetation. 



There is an erroneous impression abroad that science must 

 know insects, that science can therefore furnish all the informa- 

 tion needed to insure the destruction of insects injurious to 

 vegetation ; that books may be consulted, and that from books 

 you may get all the information necessary to obviate the 

 injuries done by insects. Well, if in Germany they have done 

 great things in the study of their insects injurious to vegetation, 

 if in France they have done something in that direction, what 

 have they learned ? To know the animals and insects that are 

 injurious to vegetation in those countries. But we have others 

 here, and we cannot do anything towards checking the injury 

 they produce until we know their habits. It is a new study to 

 be begun. When I get a letter from a man in the West, or at 

 the South, telling me that he has a worm or an insect on his 

 farm which does great harm, and he wants to know what to do, 

 it is as if a man in China should write that there are birds 

 about there which he would like to catch, and ask with what 

 bait he may catch them ! We should want to know first what 

 the bird was, before we could tell what bait should be used to 

 catch him. And so it is with our insects injurious to vegeta- 

 tion. The different sections of the United States produce 

 insects injurious to vegetation which are different from one 

 another. The insects injurious to vegetation in South Carolina 

 are totally different from those which damage our crops, and 

 therefore must be studied there ; and when they send to the 

 North for information, we can simply say this — " We know 



