120 THE REPORT OF THE 19 



the iD8idiou8 pest. If a pack of wolves were to come down from the mountains and rav- 

 age the flock and herds of the community, carrying off and destroying one-tenth of 

 the cattle and sheep, it would Dot be long before every man in the country who could fire 

 a gun and ride a horse would be in hot haste to join in a fierce onslaught upon them. 

 Why should there not be an equal effort and an equal determination to get rid of an 

 insect enemy that causes the loss of just as great an amount of most valuable property 1 

 In the one case there is, to be sure, the instinctive love of the chase and all its attendant 

 excitement, while in the other there is the humdrum adoption of some special date of 

 ploughing, some particular variety of seed, some careful burning of stubble, some extra 

 cleaning of grain, — perhaps some little expense, not for powder and shot, but for remedial 

 applications. 



There is another side, also, I am glad to learn, to the North-West Entomological So- 

 ciety. It is paying attention to practical Botany, and also to Geology. The latter, to the 

 ears of most, conveys the word gold, and I need not, therefore, refer to the value of it, — 

 but all I have said about the study of insects applies equally well to that of weeds. The 

 one are as ubiquitous as the other, and it is quiie evident that over the vast prairies of 

 the North- West, with their rich soil and luxurious vegetation, weeds are going to prove as 

 tough a problem as the worst of our insect foes. Here, too, all can do something — all can 

 co-operate. No man should be permitted to let his neighbour's fields be sown with the 

 seeds of weeds that he has been too lazy or too careless to cut down. But many weeds 

 are blown for miles across the land and have to be dealt with in various ways. These are 

 matters to be studied and objects upon which experiments must be tried, — and here, too, 

 comes in the necessity of some education, some elementary information by means of which 

 a noxious weed may be distinguished from a useful or a harmless plant. 



I am writing from a long way off and to dwellers in a land that I have never seen, 

 but in matters of science distance makes no difference. We are all brothers in search of 

 truth. We are all at one in our desire to help e&ch other in any way we can — to lessen 

 the toil and cheer the labours of those who are preparing the way for a rich and prosperous 

 community, a goodly province in the Empire of our Qaeen and the Confederacy of our 

 Dominion. 



ADDRESS BY DR. HENRY GEORGE, M.R.O.S., ENG., L.R.O.P. 



Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen, and fellow members of the Northwest Ento- 

 mological Society, I am glad to greet you. As long as I have been in Alberta — some ten 

 years — I have looked forward to this time, when men are ready to use both brains and 

 eyes, and not merely till the ground and perform various other labors in these almost wild 

 parts of the world. 



I take it that the chief object of this Society is to enable the farmer to distinguish 

 between his friends and enemies, as relating to his crops, grasses, domestic herds, <kc. 

 Birds, animals, insects, weeds, are all under this head ; and it behoves us to help our 

 Secretary in his praiseworthy endeavor to make us understand and learn how to distin- 

 guish between what we should destroy as vermin and what we should protect as bene- 

 ficial to the agricultural interests. 



I may Bay that the love of observing nature has been born in me, and when I came 

 out here and heard a man called a " bug hunter " I was much insulted, as I had never 

 before connected that obnoxious word with anything except the little insect that dis- 

 turbs night's slumbers in some cases. But I might bring these remarks to an end as the 

 Secretary has kindly asked me to pick out some animal or bird and give you my observa- 

 tions and readings on the same. I am going to give you a few words on the 



Pocket Gopher. (G. bursarius). 



This animal is like the English mole in many respects, but differs in others. Like 



the mole it lives underground and throws up small heaps of fine earth, having " runs " 



nder the ground. Its fur, both in texture and color, is very similar. It looks like a 



