The White Grub Of The May Beetle (1888) (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: The White Grub of the May Beetle, Lachnosterna fusca. It may safely be asserted that the last twenty-five years have been signalized by greater progress than had been made in the preceding century, in economic entomology ? that science that, through the study of insect lives and insect habits, tends to promote the comfort, welfare, happiness, and prosperity of society at large. In every direction it has shown a marked advance ? in a knowledge of the insects with which it has to deal, the various insecticides employed for the destruction of injurious species, the mechanical devices used in the application of insecticides, and a wide distribution of the results of the studies, in these several directions, of our ablest entomologists. So marked has been this progress, that I need not at this time dwell upon it, for it must be evident to all who have given the slightest attention to the study. Insect depredations, to an extent elsewhere unknown, imperatively demanded that means should be found for their control. In recognition of the need, and in response to the call, provision, through State aid of the means essential to the study, was made, and those were found who were ready to devote themselves enthusiastically to the work. As the result, we are able to say, that there is to-day, within the reach of our agricultural community, a literature which offers them means for protection from their insect foes, superior to that of any other country of the globe. But, while boasting of this progress, I should fail of giving honor to whom honor is due, if I neglected to recall the fact, that at the very basis of this progress lie the labors of Dr. Asa Fitch, called to his work thirty years ago by the New York State Agricultural Society, and sustained therein for nearly a score of years,...