PROF. J. L. RUSSELL'S ADDRESS. 243 



manifested in " sparing the birds." The methods to protect your 

 cornfields from injury, which your ingenuity can suggest, are 

 worthy all the time they may consume— so that while you suffer 

 nothing in your grain, the birds also escape injury. An indis- 

 criminate destruction of birds has always proved the short-sight- 

 edness of the practice. Countries where these little creatures 

 are used for food, without respect to sorts or size, are pro- 

 verbial for the insect vermin which abound. A perusal of 

 some authentic work on the natural history of birds, and your 

 own observation, would convince you of their humble but gra- 

 tuitous and useful cooperation to rid your soil and grounds of 

 grubs, worms, crawling and winged insects of every kind. The 

 most mischievous are not wholly depraved ; those plunderers of 

 the cherry tree and the despised crows make away with a 

 numerous and countless host of creeping things, as an offset to 

 their love of your corn and fruit. Humanity, as well as expe- 

 diency, direct to their preservation and protection. 



And why should not the younger branches of the family be- 

 come accpLiainted with the history of insects, that, familiar with 

 its details, they may be forearmed against their attacks, when 

 they shall turn their attention to the labors of the field ? These 

 minuter studies require sharper and younger eyes than their 

 parents possess ; otherwise, I should urge on your attention 

 entomology, as a collateral branch of your profession. The 

 knowledge of the natural history of insects, ought not to be con- 

 fined to the very few who cultivate it as a pleasing occupation, 

 but it should be more practical and common. The agricultural 

 newspapers of the day are producing signal benefit in this re- 

 spect, in the attention they bestow on this subject. Correct and 

 particular descriptions of the insects injurious to vegetation, 

 with figures of the several stages of their growth and transfor- 

 mations, will prove decidedly useful. Doubtless, much of the 

 mischief which annually increases from certain kinds of insects, 

 might be palliated, perhaps obviated, through a knowledge of 

 their habits. The constant importation of foreign fruit trees 

 renders us liable to the introduction of destructive foreign insects 

 accompanyingthem. But, independent of the utility of the sub- 

 ject, it embraces a wide range of objects, full of curious interest 



