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a large balance available. But it has occurred to me, that 

 only a short time since several of our members were desirous 

 of increasing the subscription to half a guinea, or even one 

 guinea. Now, if these gentlemen would carry their idea into 

 practice personally, they would be doing the Society a great 

 service, as they might pay the larger sum annually with the 

 promise that the amount above the usual sum should be 

 passed to the Library Fund, and by this means we should be 

 enabled to purchase many more and better books. 



This idea is not original, it is carried out in the Yorkshire 

 Naturalist Union, a Society which has possibly a larger 

 membership than any other of its kind in the United King- 

 dom. The last published list of its members reached the 

 grand total of just on three thousand. In the Yorkshire 

 Naturalist Union they accept a minimum subscription of 

 five shillings ; but its members may subscribe any sum 

 above they may please. It is needless to say, that very 

 many do subscribe their guinea, and by this means they have 

 funds to publish some most extensive and valuable books on 

 the Fauna and Botany of the whole of Yorkshire. It is a 

 pity we cannot do something on these lines. 



A few years since it was quite a common question to 

 be asked by those who knew nothing of Natural History 

 (and then they were an extremely numerous class). What was 

 the use of such societies as ours ? Was it not a mere waste 

 of time to go butterfly hunting or beetle catching? and 

 Naturalists generally were looked down on almost as harmless 

 lunatics. Fortunately, with the spread of education and 

 entomological literature, this idea is fast dying out. People 

 are beginning to recognise the fact that Naturalists can, and 

 often do, render them a considerable service, by giving 

 them instructions how to combat the swarms of noxious 

 insects that too often devastate their farms, gardens, orchards, 

 granaries, etc., inflicting on them serious losses. It has 

 doubtless occurred to many of our members here to-night to 

 have been solicited by those suffering from a plague of 

 destructive insects, for information as to what they could do 

 to arrest or rid themselves of these pests ? This has frequently 



