64 
ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY : 
SOME ADVANTAGES TO BE DERIVED FROM ITS STUDY, 
——— 
By C. Frencg, F.L.S., F.R.H.S., GoVERNMENT ENTOMOLOGIST. 
(14th July, 1893.) 
The subject on which I have, by request, ventured to address 
you this afternoon is one that, in the present state of affairs in 
Victoria, would appear to be appropriate, inasmuch as we are 
embarking in the cultivation of our rural industries to such an 
extent as to cause us to hope that prosperity may return to us, 
and that the prognostications of our pessimists and “ crest- 
droopers ’” may not be realized. 
When I allude to the large areas that, during the last few 
years, have been taken up for the cultivation of grain, wine, and 
fruit, it will at once strike those of us who were fortunate enough 
to have listened to Mr. West’s splendid lecture that we have 
only as yet touched ihe fringe of our great natural resources. To 
talk of over-production in either grain, wine, or fruit is only to 
expose our little weaknesses and want of knowledge on the 
subject. 
It is not my intention to deal further with such matters ; still, 
some allusion, as above, to these growing industries may not be 
out of place. 
In the early days of fruit-growing in the colony, when our late 
venerable friends T. C. Cole, R. Watmaugh, Murdoch, and a few 
others led the way, they had comparatively little to contend with, 
at least in the shape of pests, either insect or fungus. But since 
the wholesale destruction of the valuable insectivorous birds, the 
extensive importations of trees and plants from foreign countries, 
and from other causes, the grower at the present time finds him- 
self confronted with insect and other foes both numerous and 
formidable. 
Again, with the extension of the orchard and farming area into 
thickly-timbered districts, native insects, formerly confined to in- 
digenous plants, have thought fit to attack our imported trees, 
these latter being, I suspect, more palatable to them than many 
of our native gums, wattles, &c. 
The destruction of our valuable auxiliaries—the insect-destroy- 
ing birds—has, without a doubt, been the cause of an enormous 
increase in the number of noxious insects, all and sundry, and 
nothing could have been more suicidal than for us to have allowed 
this destruction to continue as it has done. 
