ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF ONTARIO. 37 



The Eev. T. W. Fyles then read the following paper : 



THE IMPORTANCE OF ENTOMOLOGICAL STUDIES TO AN AGRICUL- 

 TURAL AND FRUIT-GROWING COMMUNITY. 



Rev. Thomas W. Fyles, F.L.S., South Quebec. 



It is wonderful proof of the wisdom and goodness of God that this earth, which He 

 hath given to the children of men,* is so fitted and prepared that it affords scope and 

 claim for the exercise of man's powers, and that man himself is so constituted that the 

 employment of those powers is conducive to his well-being and enjoyment of life. 



So true is this that though the fiat has gone forth-—" Thorns and thistles shall the 

 earth bring forth to thee. In the sweat of thy face shalfc thou eat bread," it is also 

 written, " Thou shalt eat the labour of thine hands. well is thee, and happy shalt 

 thou be." 



In the vegetable kingdom materials in such great variety are so abundantly 

 furnished, and man finds that he can, to so great an extent, select, transplant, modify 

 and improve the plants producing them, for the supply of his necessities and gratification 

 of his tastes, that he is stimulated to exertion, and comes to realize that he is, in a 

 humble way, a co-worker with God ; and his work is ennobled to him by the thought. 



And not only do men, whose very living depends upon their endeavours in the field, 

 the garden, the orchard and the vine-yard, take an interest in rural occupations and their 

 rewards ; " The king himself " — says the wise man — " is served by the field " ; and the 

 devotes of Ceres, Flora and Pomona are to be found as well among the highly gifted and 

 trained leaders of the public as among the hard-handed sons of toil. The most eminent 

 statesman can take pleasure in a primrose or an orchid. The great Lord Bacon spoke of 

 Horticulture as the " purest of human pleasures ; and the " Judicious Hooker," one of 

 England's most learned and thoughtful divines, desired no higher preferment than a 

 country cure, in which he might see God's gifts spring fron the bosom of the mother 

 earth. 



It is the general interest in the productions of the soil, and whatever affects those 

 productions, that is the raison oV etre of the scientific associations fostered by our Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture. 



The task I have set myself is to shew the importance of Entomological studies to 

 those who take an interest in the cultivation of the soil. 



Entomology has to deal with " the locust, the caterpillar, and the palmer- worm " — 

 God's " great army." So vast is this army that — to use the words of Dr. Lintner, the 

 State Entomologist of New York — " it has been truthfully said that insects have estab- 

 lished a kind of universal empire over the earth and its inhabitants. Minute as many of 

 them are, and insignificant in size to other than naturalists, yet in combination they 

 have desolated countries and brought famine and pestilence in their train." (First 

 Report, p. 2.) Happily the hordes are duly apportioned. Each natural division of terri- 

 tory has its share. And there is such a marvellous arrangement of checks and counter- 

 checks operating upon them that, as a rule, every kind is held in proper suVj action. 



The intentional or accidental transportation of an injurious species beyond the 

 sphere of the operations of its natural foes sometimes occasions disaster. 



Of the injuries wrought by imported insects we have had instances never to be for- 

 gotten, in the ravages of the Hessian Fly (Cecidomyia destructor, Say), the Cabbage 

 Butterfly (Pieris rapce, Linn.), the Colorado Potato Beetle (Doryphora decem-lineata, Say), 

 the Larch Saw fly [Nematus Erichsonii, Hartig), the Gypsy Moth (Ocneria dispar, Linn.), 

 end the Fluted Scale (Iceryia Purchasi, Maskell). 



It must not, however, be supposed that all insects are injurious. Many species must 

 be ranked among the cultivator's friends. Indeed, of the 25,000 named species of North 

 American insects about 8,000 only can be regarded as pests. 



Ps. cxv, 16. 



