INTRODUCTION. 



Again, the ravages of insects and their larvae are of the most serious 

 import to all persons interested in the cultivation of the soil, whether it 

 be farming, gardening, or forestry ; and it is only by observing and 

 recording the earliest time of the appearance of such insects that pre- 

 ventive measures can be adopted with any prospect of success. The 

 Diary contains many records of this kind, and I regret that it does not 

 contain many more. Miss Ormerod, whose labours in this field of | 

 inquiry are well known, informs me that no trustworthy results as to the 

 average time of the first appearances of insect pests have yet been 

 obtained; and I hope, therefore, that the Diary will afford facilities for 

 collecting observations relating to this subject in all parts of the country, 

 from which useful results may be obtained. 



Apart from the study of climate and the economic productions of 

 the soil, a very large number of persons are close observers of nature 

 from the intellectual pleasure and culture it affords. There are probably 

 few country-bred persons of either sex who have not at some period of 

 their lives kept a naturalist's diary, in one form or another, and many 

 such diaries are at present in existence which contain interesting and 

 valuable records, but which are lost to science from the absence of a 

 trustworthy standard with which to compare and correlate them. One of 

 the objects of the Diary is to furnish a standard of this kind, and it is 

 especially suitable for the purpose from the wide range of subjects it 

 embraces, and also from the fact that the climate and physical sur- 

 roundings of Marlborough are those of the average of the inland and 

 cultivated parts of our Islands. Mr. Preston and his numerous co- 

 labourers have directed their attention chiefly to the first blossoming of 

 plants, the first appearance of butterflies and moths, and the migration 

 and nesting of birds, which has necessarily crowded the data into the 

 spring and summer months, and left the pages of the autumn and winter 

 months comparatively empty. But the student of climate, especially 

 if he consider it from a sanitary point of view, and the cultivation of the 

 soil, will find ample materials for insertion in the blank pages. Observa- 

 tions are required on the ripening of fruits, seeds, and roots, and their 

 time of harvesting; on the survival and the second blossoming of plants 

 and trees at unusual seasons, and on the change and fall of the leaf as 

 indicating the ripening of buds and the prospect of future fruit crops. 

 Further observations are also required on the casual appearance of 

 insects, the migration of birds in winter, and the hibernation and other ^ 

 phenomena of animal life, &c. 



Many persons will probably not have either the time nor the inclination 

 to devote their attention to all the subjects of inquiry embraced in the 

 Diary; but the specialist who confines his labours to one or two sections 

 cannot fail to be interested in the correlative phenomena, and thus gain 

 a wider view of the significance of his favourite branch of study. 



The Diary will be useful in exciting an interest in natural science 



