Ferent Aririevltnral Puhlications, 
839 
de Paris en 1856, by M. Baudement, on the part of the French 
Government. But that was a much more ambitious work, in 
which some of the drawings bear the signature of Rosa Bonheur. 
The present work is a companion volume to the same publisher’s 
treatises on Sheep Breeding (Mentzel’s Shafzticht) and Pig Breed- 
ing (Rhode’s Schweinezucht). 
AGRICULTURAL ENTOMOLOGY.' 
Ten or a dozen years ago the subject of agricultural entomology, as 
a serious and profitable study, was scai'cely recognised in this 
country. In one season one crop, and in another season another 
crop, would fall a victim to the attacks of in.sect pests, and year 
after year such losses were conveniently, if ignorantly, attributed to 
“ blight.” Little attempt was made to investigate the nature of 
this “ blight,” still less its cause. 
In order that any substantial progress might be made in the 
saving of crops from the ravages of insects it was very desirable 
that the ideas conveyed by the term “ blight ” should be better 
defined, and indeed that the term itself should give place to others 
carrying more precise meanings. For such work as this a popular 
teacher was needed — one who would not be deterred, either by the 
inherent difficulties of the subject, or by the lack of enthusiasm and 
of public appreciation which could hardly fail to accompany the 
earlier efforts. It is such a teacher that the author of this volume 
has proved herself to be. 
In 1884 Miss Ormerod published a little handbook, A Guide to 
Methods of Insect Life, of which the present work is in effect a 
second edition. The scheme of the book may be understood at a 
glance. Of the ten chapters, the first two deal with insects and 
insect life in general, and, aided by copious illustration, they serve 
to put any reader of ordinary intelligence in possession of such 
entomological facts and principles as can be usefully applied in 
coping with the ravages of insect pests. A couple of chapters are 
then devoted to the two-winged insects (the true flies, or Diptera), 
which include not only such crop-devastators as wheat midge, 
Hessian fly, wheat-bulb fly (fig. 1), mangel fly, onion fly, and leather 
jacket, but also such irritating blood-suckers as gad flies, warble 
flies, bot flies, forest flies (fig. 2), and others which persecute our in- 
offensive and defenceless farm live stock. The next two chapters 
deal with the extensive group of the beetles (Coleoptera, fig. 3), chief 
crop-destroyer amongst which is the wireworm, though its allies — the 
turnip fly, cockchafer, and weevils of all kinds — are also capable of 
doing great mischief. The succeeding chapter is concerned with the 
* A Text-hook of Agricultural Entomology ; being a Guide to Methods of 
Insect Life and Means of Prevention of Insect Ra/rage. For the Use of Agricul- 
turists and Agricultural Students. By Eleanob A. Oemerod, F.R.Met.Soc., 
&c. Pages xii -I- 2.38, with 163 illustrations. London : Simpkin, Marshall, Hamil- 
ton, Kent & Co. 1892. 
VOL. 111. T. S. — 12 3 L 
