520 [Assembly 



Resolved, That the memhers of this Club, and farmers and garde- 

 ners generally, be requested to collect, preserve and send to the 

 American Institute, specimens of such insects as are destructive to 

 vegetables, and such remarks in relation to them as they think pro- 

 per. And also that the Institute be requested to offer a liberal pre- 

 mium for the best preparation of Entomology, for the benefit of the 

 Club. 



Mr. Abraham Wakeman. — Twine drawn around and across a corn 

 field is almost a sure preventive of the attacks of crows and black birds, 

 the latter partaking of the sagacity of the crow. But thus the insect 

 tribes have a feast. Farmers have long tried to kill the insects in 

 corn by dropping alkalies at the roots, and this also increases the crop 

 of corn. On examination you will find some stalks of corn, when 

 about three feet high, having in them, at a little distance from the 

 root a wire worm, which destroys the inside of the stalk. The law 

 of Connecticut, giving a black bounty of ten cents per head for kill- 

 ing crows, has caused men to visit the rookeries of these useful birds 

 ■with their muskets, and kill hundreds of them. Man kills the birds, 

 and the noxious insects then multiply their destructive forces. In the 

 northern and some other countries you will find numerous large dead 

 pines, which are said to be victims of insects at the root; no young 

 pines growing in their places. 



My 21st, 1846. 

 J. L. Hyde in the Chair. 



Mr. Meigs. — It may be proper to notice insects useful to man, in 

 this description, and also the efforts made elsewhere at other times, 

 to correct the evil of injurous insects. 



Humboldt says, that the cochineal produced in South America an 

 income of five hundred thousand pounds sterling a year. We know 

 the value of the bee. 



Leuwenhock says, that one pair of Hessian flies can produce in 

 three months, seven hundred thousand. Kirby says that some insects 

 produce incredible numbers of offsprings. The white ant, (Termes 

 fatales) lays in one year over two hundred millions of eggs. 



In 1788, England was greatly alarmed by the presence of the Hes- 

 sian fly. They supposed it had been imported from the United States, 



