17 
respectively of 3120 or 3510 gallons; and, without at 
all venturing on a subject so far beyond me as the 
general utilisation of excessive rainfall, yet it may be 
safely stated there is many a homestead where the 
roofage yield of water is allowed to run to waste, which, 
with full allowance for the cost of properly-built and 
cemented cisterns, would soon yield a paying return if 
at hand in time of need in the fields. 
Perhaps I should ask your pardon in thus apparently 
passing for an instant from the special considerations of 
to-day, but it is so plain that a better regulated distri¬ 
bution of water, both as an external application to clear 
off insect vermin and for absorption by the roots to 
press on the growth, would be thoroughly useful, that the 
point of how far it could be managed by steam-power at 
a paying rate is well worth thinking of. 
We know, through Mr. Symons’ returns, what is the 
rainfall of each district, and the cost of cisterns (or of 
field-ponds) can easily he known; and we see that there 
is a possibility of throwing water from the use of the 
fire-engines worked by steam, which are gradually 
superseding the hand-worked machines of other days. 
We see, too, every year—and on a vast scale in 1881— 
the enormous sums which are lost in dried-up districts, 
whilst in others, at the same period, precisely similar 
crops are saved by a timely rainfall destroying the 
insect-foe, or running on the crop; .and, looking onward 
at the constant increase of special crops and the con¬ 
sequent increase of the special insects that feed on 
them, it appears an important matter to see how we 
may increase our powers of counteracting attack, by 
artificially using methods which in the natural course 
we observe are the most serviceable help we possess. 
To return now to direct meteorological influences. 
We find that, as a rule, the development of insects 
through all their stages is periodic, that is, we find that 
the eggs are laid by each insect at a certain time, or at 
certain times, in the year ; in some cases at certain 
times in the day. The larvae usually hatch from these 
B 
