The TOUflCt HATHSAIIST: 



A Penny Weekly Magazine of Natural History. 



No. U4. AUGUST 12th, 1882. Vol. 3. 



THE STUDY OF NATU- 

 RAL HISTORY. 



(Contiftued from page 315.) 



AS wiili botany it is tlie same in the 

 insect world ; it forms no part 

 of our instruction to know our friends 

 and our foes, and while the former are 

 often killed under the impression they 

 are doing some damage, the latter are 

 permitted to revel in peace and plenty. 

 As an illustration of the manner in 

 which insects can eflect us, I need only 

 mention that in the year 1826, one 

 particular kind of insect made a differ- 

 ence in the top produce of this country 

 of £450,000. This was caused by 

 what is popularly called a "blight,^^ 

 but the manner m which people talk 

 of "blight'' shows a deplorable want 

 of entomological knowledge. Not long 

 ago a person caiiio to me to ask my 

 advice upon a certain point. Some of 

 his property had been attacked by in- 

 sects, and was known to populai ignor- 

 ance as being 'Mnolh-catm." Seeing 

 a number of moths about his premises 

 he had killed a large nuinbi r, but left 

 as harmless little creatures, those small 

 beetles which were the real perpetrators 



of the injury. Another episode is, 

 that one day I received two insects 

 from vineries of one of the largest 

 houses in this district, with the inti- 

 mation that they were very numerous 

 and that the gardener feared the crop 

 would be destroyed, as the insects were 

 gnawing the bark and leaves from the 

 plants. I took the trouble, or perhaps 

 I should rather say the pleasure, to 

 walk between three and four miles one 

 rainy day to see the nature of the 

 attack, and found the oiemy at work 

 and the head gardener aghast. By 

 seeking the advice of Miss Ormerod, 

 now consulting entomologist to the 

 lloyal Agricultural Society, I was able 

 to suggest remedies which, I believe, 

 were acted upon, and which in con- 

 sequence saved the vine crop. For 

 this 1 received nothing, nor would I 

 have accepted anything if otl'ered, but 

 1 did not expect, when 1 asked per- 

 mission from the owner to collect a 

 few insects in his woods, that I shoiUd 

 be refused. The common black ground 

 beetles so common in every ganlen are 

 generally destroyed when found. Peo- 

 ple have never been taught that they 



