40 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



Brainerd showed six cases beautifully illustrating the life histories of a number of interest- 

 ing specie*, while Mr. Dunlop contributed an equal number of cases of striking exotic 

 species. Mr. Norris showed about half a dozen drawers illustrating Montreal species as well 

 as the method of preparing and spreading lepidoptera, while Mr. J. B. Williams exhibited 

 an interesting case showing the life history of the Walking Stick (Diapheromera Femorata). 

 In addition to these exhibits by members of the branch, the Museum Committee of 

 McGill University contributed six large cases of strikingly beautiful tropical butterflies 

 mounted on the Denton tablets, while the Natural History Society showed its collection 

 of Canadian Ooleoptera and a few drawers of exotic Lepidoptera. 



refreshments were served about half past ten o'clock and a very enjoyable evening 

 was brought to a close shortly after >1 p.m. 



ELECTION OF OFFICERS. 



After a meeting of the Council had been held for tbe transaction of business, the 

 general session of the Society was resumed at 11 o'clock a. m., Dr. Bethune occupying 

 the chair at the request of the President. The first proceeding was the election of 

 officers for the ensuing year, which resulted as tollows : See page 2. 



THE FARMERS' GARDEN AND ITS INSECT FOES. 



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



Once upon a time some new tenants came to a farm-house in the neighborhood in 

 which I was residing. A former owner of the place had enclosed a piece of ground on 

 one side of the house and had formed a lawn and flower-beds, and planted fruit bushes 

 and ornamental shrubs. The place was a quarter of a mile from my home ; and one day 

 I walked down to see the new-comers. I found them busily engaged in driving half-a 

 dozen hogs into the enclosure 1 have mentioned. I ventured to suggest that the animals 

 would play sad work with the flowers. This was the reply — " from a heart as rough as 

 Esau's hand," — " Flowers, flowers ! The only flowers we care about are cauliflowers ! " 

 The answer expressed the prevailing contempt, in that comparatively new settlement, for 

 everything like home adornment. I ou»ht not to say everything, for an exception must 

 be made in favor of bed-quilts. The females of that neighborhood spent much of their 

 spare time in the manufacture of bed quilts. The choicest kinds were white, and had 

 Turkey-red flowers and fruits, and intensely green leaves of impossible shapes trailing all 

 over them. The possessor of a dozen varieties of such "spreads " was a proud woman. 

 She would occasionally hang her art- treasures in the open space in front of her house, 

 to excite the envy and admiration of her female neighbors, who would occasionally light 

 their pipes and stroll round to examine the patterns. 



The typical farm-house, at that time, and in that part of the country, was a story- 

 and-a-half, oblong building, covered with rough, unpainted, hemlock boards. The main 

 door was at one end and opened into the living-room. It and a trap-door into the cellar 

 were, in some instances, sheltered by a rude veranda. In the door, near the bottom, was 

 usually found a circular hole with a lengthened slit above it, in which a lighc shutter 

 fitted to the opening, was suspended on a wire to allow egresa and ingress to the cat. A 

 story was told of a man who bad two such openings made — a larger and a smaller — for 

 the convenience of the cat and the kitten. 



This primitive dwelling usually stood on a knoll in a yard open to the road. The 

 yard, which was the receptacle for the refuse of the house thrown from windows and 

 doors, was encumbered with logs drawn up for fuel, and was littered with chips. It was 

 the common play-ground — if I may be allowed so to generalize — of the poultry, pigs and 

 pickaninnies ; and in it, in the summertime, one or two " smudges " were kept burning 

 to drive away the mosquitos and black- flies. 



