354 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



make their annual onset upon the apple-tree, and nearly an equal 

 number may be found upon the plum, pear, peach and cherry. 

 Among our shade trees, over fifty species infest the oak ; twenty- 

 five the elm ; seventy-five the walnut, and over one hundred 

 species of insects prey upon the pine. 



Indeed, wc may reasonably calculate the annual loss in our 

 country alone from noxious animals, and the lower forms of 

 plants, such as rust, smut and mildew, as (at a low estimate) 

 not far from five hundred million dollars annually. Of this 

 amount, at least one-tenth, or fifty million dollars, could prob- 

 ably be saved by human exertions. 



To save a portion of this annual loss of food stuffs, fruits and 

 lumber, should be the first object of farmers and gardeners. 

 When this saving is made, farming will become a profitable and 

 comparatively safe profession. While a few are well informed 

 as to the losses sustained by injurious insects, and use means to 

 ward off their attacks, their efforts are constantly foiled by the 

 negligence of their neighbors. As illustrated so well by the 

 history of the incursions of the army worm and canker worm, it 

 is only by a combination between farmers and orchardists that 

 these and other pests can be kept under. The matter can be 

 best reached by legislation. We have fish and game laws ; why 

 should we not have an insect law ? Wiiy should we not frame 

 a law providing that farmers, and all owning a garden or 

 orchard, should co-operate in taking preventative measures 

 against injurious insects, such as early or late planting of cereals, 

 to avert the attacks of the wheat midge and Hessian fly ; the 

 burning of stubble in the autumn and spring to destroy the joint 

 worm ; the combined use of proper remedies against the canker 

 worm, tlie various cut worms, and other noxious caterpillars ? 

 A law carried out by a proper State entomological constabulary, 

 if it may be so designated, would compel the idle and shiftless to 

 clear their farms and gardens of noxious animals. 



In the succeeding pages will be noticed a few insects which 

 have lately attracted attention as new to the State, and several 

 others, not yet common, but with which it is desirable to become 

 acquainted. A few beneficial insects are described as types of 

 an immense number, which prey on noxious caterpillars and 

 other insects. 



