FIRST REPORT 



ON 



ECONOMIC BIOLOGY. 



" Admitting to an extent the advance of intelligent observation and the 

 spread of entomological knowledge, it is quite clear that not only is the destruction 

 occasioned by insects larger than ever it was, but there are insects at work in the 

 fields which were not there in the times of our forefathers. One reason for the 

 progressive increase of insects is that a larger supply of food encourages the 

 proportional propagation of insects fond of and living upon it" 



SIR CHARLES WHITEIIEAD. 

 [Report on Insects Injurious to Hop Plants, 1885, p. 6 ] 



"Even the most far-reaching problems may often be illumined and some- 

 times solved by observation and experiment upon a small scale. The laboratory, 

 by its processes of bringing forces into clear relations, may in a moment disclose 

 principles that centuries of national and world -wide experience liave left 

 unsuspected" 



Hox. WALTER F. FREAR. 



[5th Rpt. Bd. of Comms. Agric. and For. for 1908, Hawaii, p. 88.J 



INTRODUCTION. 



During the year 1910, although absent from the Midlands for 

 nearly nine months of that period, I have dealt with upwards of two 

 thousand three hundred inquiries. 



Of animal pests the three most conspicuous have been a severe 

 attack of White worms, an unusual abundance of the larvae of the 

 Large and Small Cabbage White Butterflies, and a very serious 

 plague of the Frit Fly. 



