10 



Council of the Agricultural and Arts Association of Ontario recognizing the important 

 bearing of entomology on agriculture, liberally appropriated the sum of four hundred 

 dollars in aid of the Entomological Society for the year ensuing, on the following condi- 

 tions : — That the Society continued to publish the Canadian Entomologist ; that it furnish 

 a report to the Council on insects injurious or beneficial to agriculture ; and that a small 

 cabinet of insects illustrating the various orders be made and placed at the disposal of the 

 Council. These conditions were gladly complied with and faithfully carried out, and the 

 report consisting of sixty-four pages, illustrated with sixty-one cuts, was printed in the 

 report of the Commissioner of Agriculture for that year. During the latter part of 1870, 

 an amendment to the Agricultural and Arts Act was introduced by the Hon. John 

 Carling, then Commissioner of Agriculture for Ontario, which provided for the incorpora- 

 tion of the Society under the name of The Entomological Society of Ontario," with a 

 yearly grant of five hundred dollars from the public funds of the Province, on condition 

 that the Society prepare annually for the Commissionf^r of Agriculture a report on the 

 subject of insects injurious or beneficial to the farm and garden, with the understanding 

 also that the Canadian Entomologist should be continued. During the period which has 

 since elapsed, the Ontario Government have recognized the value of the service rendered 

 by the Society to the agricultural interests of Ontario, by increasing the grant several 

 times, until it now amounts to one thousand dollars a year. The liberality of the Gov- 

 ernment has greatly stimulated the work of the Society. 



The practical or economic aspect of this work has been presented to the public 

 mainly in the series of thirteen annual reports, which have been submitted to the Com- 

 missioner of Agriculture by members of the Society, and published in the Commissioner's 

 report. In these publications the insects injurious to the various field crops and fruits 

 have from time to time been discussed, together with the remedies which have been sug- 

 gested for their destruction. The value of these reports is indicated by the demand which 

 has arisen for them, owing to which it has been found necessary to greatly increase the 

 number of copies issued. Some of those belonging to the earlier years are now quite 

 scarce and difficult to obtain. They have been most favourably noticed by the press in 

 all parts of America and in Great Britain, and thus the good work has been brought 

 prominently into notice. If we contrast the amount of information now available to 

 our farmers and fruit growers on the nature and life history of destructive insects and 

 the best methods of subduing them with our knowledge on this subject fifteen years ago, 

 the vast progress made will at once be recognized, and ifc is to the unselfish labours of the 

 members of our Society that much of the credit for this is legitimately due. I have no 

 hesitation in asserting that the value of the information thus distributed has returned 

 to the country by the losses which have been lessened or prevented many times the 

 amount which has been granted to the Society during the past twelve years from the 

 public moneys of this Province. 



The Canadian Entomologist has been regularly issued, and is now in its fifteenth 

 volume. The volumes published have contained a vast amount of useful scientific in- 

 formation, which by its wide dissemination has been one of the chiet factors in the 

 progress of entomology in this country. The work of our Society in this department 

 has attracted much attention abroad, and our journal has been sought after by many of 

 the learned societies in Great Britain, the United States, France, Germany, Russia and 

 Sweden, and regular exchanges of our publications with their's on equal terms eflfected. 

 Thus from small beginnings the Entomological Society of Ontario has come to be recog- 

 nized as one of the important aids to scientific progress. It is much to the credit of On- 

 tario that for some years the Canadian Entomologist was the only regularly issued 

 periodical specially devoted to the interests of entomology on the American continent, 

 and that it still commands the contributions of many of the most distinguished ento- 

 mologists in all parts of the country. 



During the period of the existence of the Society a large collection of insects has 

 been made, a good library accumulated, and an excellent working microscope and other 

 facilities for the study of insects provided, all of which are readily accessible here to any 

 of our members who may reside in London, or who may visit us from a distance. The 

 collection shown, at the request of the Government, at the Centennial Exposition in Phila- 



