PKEFACE. 
IX 
some cases in turning the top slice of land with its insect pests 
thoroughly down so as to bury these away. Chemical dressings 
of various kinds, which have come greatly more into use at the 
present day for farm service than twenty-two years ago, are 
much recorded as beneficial insecticides, especially gas-lime; 
nitrate of soda as injurious to Daddy Longlegs grubs, besides its 
excellences as a stimulant acting rapidly on crops requiring 
support in insect attack; and kainite also has been found useful 
in preventing small larvae just below the surface of the ground 
coming to development. 
The main points recorded of our chief attacks given in the 
Annual Reports up to 1891 I have condensed into connected 
papers in my ‘ Manual,’ published in that year. Much increased 
attention has since then been given to orchard and bush fruit 
growing, and the contributions on this subject are given (brought 
up to date) in my ‘ Handbook of Orchard and Bush Fruit Insects,’ 
published in the autumn of last year (1898). 
With respect to the great mass of correspondence and reports 
which have accumulated year by year in my hands. Many of these, 
for various reasons, are of no public importance, and these I 
have not preserved. But there are a very large number of letters 
and communications which are of great value as being identifi¬ 
cations and reports regarding rare forms of insect infestation, on 
which consultation was needed, contributed to me by many of the 
most leading entomologists, British and extra-British, of our 
time; and also there is a very large amount of practical infor¬ 
mation contained in communications, varying in length from 
short notes up to regular reports, regarding habits and means of 
lessening loss from insect ravage, which have been contributed 
by well-known agriculturists, fruit-growers, and foresters; almost 
all of these bearing the name and address of observer, and date 
of communication. These I have carefully preserved in a col¬ 
lection of many volumes as being an unbroken series of practical 
and scientific record, extending over a period of two-and-twenty 
years, of conditions bearing on appearance or methods of counter¬ 
acting presence of insect pests in the peculiar climatic and other 
conditions of our island, which is of no very large area of mileage, 
and isolated by its sea-girt state from most kinds of extraneous 
infestation, save such as are chiefly conveyed in grain and other 
trade imports, or are windborne to our shores. These documents 
might very likely have been more serviceably utilized year by 
year in more skilled hands than mine, but they could have been 
in none more desirous to make them of the fullest service; and 
in the belief that they are an important national trust, I have, 
in the dispositions of my will, bequeathed the papers where they 
will be in safe and honest keeping, both with regard to their 
preservation, and also that if the stores of information contained 
in them should be further utilized, it will be acknowledged 
rightfully to the observers. 
