CHAPTER XIX

LETTERS TO DR. J. FLETCHER

General references to insect infestation—Progress of Economic Entomology—Success in using Paris-green in Britain—End of work done for the Board of Agriculture and Royal Agricultural Society of England.

The series of selected letters to Dr. Fletcher in this and the succeeding chapter is the most comprehensive of the remnants of Miss Ormerod’s correspondence with distant scientific authorities. Although only a portion of the original group of letters, it ranges over a period of fourteen years, and touches, sometimes only lightly, a great many of the leading objects of interest which had specially engaged her attention. Some phases of character come out here more conspicuously than in any other part of the volume. The mutual confidence in business matters which speedily established itself developed in this, as in most other instances, into intimate personal friendship.

_To Dr. J. Fletcher, Dominion Entomologist, Ottawa, Canada._

DUNSTER LODGE, SPRING GROVE, ISLEWORTH, ENGLAND,

_February 4, 1886_.

DEAR MR. FLETCHER,—You ask about gas lime (as a top dressing for land). There is certainly need for caution in its use, but I do not think you would find a better short treatise on it than the little paper printed by the late Dr. [Augustus] Voelcker, of which I have had a copy taken for you (now enclosed with much pleasure), for I do not know where (or whether) it was published.[70] The kind old man sent me a copy when I wrote to him during his last illness, I not being aware how ill he was at the time. He had a great opinion of the lime, and I think it does immense good, but still, if too fresh or if too thickly applied, dire are the consequences. Even if the heaps are left standing a little while on the field, the chances are the spots will be poisoned. But I always use it in our garden. When we came here about twelve years ago it could be had as a gift, but when I wanted some a few weeks ago it cost about 7s. the cart load, and was only sold to me as a favour, there is such a run on it. One of the market gardeners said he could not do without it, and it is splendid for getting rid of the diseased growths in cabbage and turnip known as “Club-root” or “Finger and Toe.” But withal it does not do to trust the application to hands without heads. You will find reports (or rather notes in some of my different Reports) about quantities used.

I hope you will be able to come over, there are so many points it would be so pleasant to talk over, and Croydon is only a little way off by rail. It would give me great pleasure to make your sister’s acquaintance.

_July 19, 1886._

Lately I had good specimens of a Hippobosca, _H. Struthionis_, Janson, which is doing harm in South Africa to Ostriches at an up-country station. It appears to be a very curious instance of the migration of a parasite, as M. Lichtenstein (if I remember right, or M. Offer) thinks it may have been caught so to say by the Ostriches from the Quagga. It is very interesting as a quadruped pest on a bird.

_March 15, 1887._

I was so very much gratified to receive your kind letter this morning, that I will reply as soon as I possibly can. Your Entomological Society of Ontario is the one of all others that I desire to belong to. I shall think it a real honour, one made still more welcome by the kind and courteous manner in which you notify I am likely to be permitted to have such a distinction [honorary membership]. Your society seems to me a pattern, a thorough example of what a Society should be, so truly scientific, and using its knowledge for the general benefit. I shall be proud to be allowed to add its title to my titles—prouder still to have the approbation and cordial friendship of its President, and its late President.

You have encouraged and gratified me very much by what you kindly say about my Hessian fly pamphlet; very few of our English Entomologists care for subjects of practical bearing, and it has grown me many a grey hair,[71] to endeavour to “keep the bridge.” The “flax-seeds” are now being found near Errol in Scotland in the light grain or “shag,” or “chog,” as it is called, which is thrown down by a separate apparatus from the machine. Meantime I am trying to get a kind of cordon established for watch on the straw at such of our importing ports as I have influence near. We give the working men, through whose hands the straw daily passes, full instructions what they are to look for, where, and how, likewise a small gratuity, and a promise of a handsome bonus to the first who finds and produces specimens of infested imported straw. The working men can help enormously if they are kindly and properly dealt with, and I did not think sending an inspector would do much good. Hessian fly puparia would not have been “at home” on the day of his visit! Could you tell me whether straw is usually cut above the point of attachment of the puparia in Canada? This would make an enormous difference as to danger of infection.

Dr. Lindeman, Moscow, has given me a list of the Governments over which _C. destructor_ has spread in Russia since its first appearance in 1879, and with his permission I am publishing it in my tenth Report (p. 104). Would you care to have a packet of copies sent over? Of course I shall send copies immediately on publication for your and Professor Saunders’s kind acceptance, and to a few other of my Canadian friends; but if you will give me leave I should have real gratification in having a packet forwarded, and also begging acceptance of electros of any of my own figures which you thought might be acceptable to your Entomological Society.

TORRINGTON HOUSE, ST. ALBANS, ENGLAND,

_April 22, 1889_.

It was indeed a pleasure to me to see your handwriting again, and very soon after I received your Report which you have so kindly sent me. I have turned over the pages to see the general contents, and first of all I am exceedingly interested in your “Silver-top” attack corresponding with our “white eared” wheat. They—these peculiar ears—appeared in Southern Russia, Dr. Lindeman tells me, two years ago, and he could not discover any insect traces any more than I could. It seems to me quite unaccountable, if it really is caused by Thrips, that they should not leave their cast clothing behind them! I wonder what you will think of my idea of ring vegetable disease? Dr. Lindeman writes me that he means to examine for _Anguillulidæ_ (eel-worms).

I am particularly interested in your notes of _C. leguminicola_ [American clover-seed midge], for I have long suspected we had the larvæ here, and to-day I succeeded in rearing my first imago, and have sent it off to Mr. Meade with Dr. Lintner and Professor Saunders’s description and figures to see if he will agree with me. Will you kindly thank Professor Saunders from me for having the new edition of his excellent book on fruit pests sent to me. It is a pleasure to see it in this less expensive form, so many more people will buy it.

_September 2, 1889._

You must indeed have had pleasure in your visit to Washington, but what a spectacle your study table must be on your return! Does not the collection, all calling “answer me first,” quite make your heart sink? I cannot face it—it is such a terrible strain, so I stop nearly entirely at home like a limpet on a rock, and keep my work as well as I can in hand.

_November 11, 1889._

Did I tell you that the _Xyleborus dispar_, Fab. (Shot-borer), has made what I hope may be only one of its strange intermittent appearances, in plum stems at the great Toddington fruit ground near Cheltenham? What a strangely destructive attack it is! I could not completely understand how it killed the young trees so wonderfully quickly until I dissected some stems, and found that, like your _X. pyri_, Peck, the creatures partly ringed the stem to begin with. And what a quantity in one stem! We need a descriptive English name, so I propose to call it the “Crowder,” from the manner in which all the galleries are so crowded with the beetles, that there seems hardly room for another specimen.

_December 6, 1889._

How very very curious is what you say about Professor Riley’s now thinking _E. kuhniella_ (Mill moth, fig. 41) may be a South Carolina insect. I shall await the letter you promise me with great interest. I suppose some records have been searched out, for in the spring he wrote me that he thought he could safely say that this species did not occur in the United States. Dr. Lintner also held the same view, and he is care itself. I am so glad you told me, for I had written quite a neat little paragraph for my Report on the remarkable circumstance of advance of one insect attack being so minutely recorded. How awkward it would have been! How good of you to spare me a male specimen. It is quite different your sparing me a specimen to my putting anything I have in your hands; I really hope you have not robbed your own valuable collection too much. I have been trying to compare them as well as I can manage under present circumstances, but I cannot of course do much without the microscope. The colour of mine is deeper, but this is not much. It was alive, but mature, when I took it.

I do believe all good work is done in concert, though we do not know how it may be fitting together yet. It is very often a great comfort to me to think so.

[Illustration:

1, Beetle ♀; 2, larva—magnified, with natural length of each; 3 and 4, cell, natural size, showing broad and flat, and also narrow view.

FIG. 46.—SHOT-BORER BEETLES, _XYLEBORUS DISPAR_, FAB. ]

_December 16, 1889._

I put off writing for a few days because I wanted to tell you more about the _Xyleborus dispar_ (Shot-borer or Apple-bark beetle), which I am afraid is likely to be a very serious matter in other localities than where it first appeared, and it is doing much mischief: I do not quite like to raise the “danger flag” on my own sole responsibility, so I have sent out some of the new specimens to have my identification confirmed, and then I mean to write to you again and send a few more males. I found seven with hardly more than that number of females; also I found specimens of the white stuff that Schmidberger observed the larvæ fed on, and I have asked Professor Bernard Dyer to analyse it for me. He is a very kind as well as skilled helper. I cannot find the least sign of disease about the attacked trees: if the bark had been washed it could not be cleaner from Scale or moulds of any kind, but the havoc is dismal—what my correspondent calls “a slaughter” of trees.

We have now got the subject of Agricultural Entomology regularly announced as one of the subjects (voluntary) for examination of the Senior Candidates of our Royal Agricultural Society of England. I have been trying to get this arranged for some time, and I hope it will do good.

I have drawn up the questions as practically, _i.e._, on as practical points as I could.

_December 16, 1889._

Your letter was hardly started this morning when I received the confirmation from Mr. Oliver E. Janson of my identification of the fresh supply of Shot-borers from plum-wood being quite correct, beyond doubt _X. dispar._ So I have great pleasure in enclosing two males and two females in a thin quill. They are packed in fine bark clippings, which they have shredded out themselves, so I hope they will travel safely. These are from plum stems, and in some cases they attack the branches. I have just now written a letter to the _Worcester Herald_, warning fruit-growers to be on the alert, giving as much practical advice as I could compress into reasonable space, and especially recommending burning infested trees.

_December 24, 1889._

I think that Agricultural Entomology is moving forward, but we are much hampered at present by various difficulties, which I fancy you would dispose of very rapidly on your side of the Atlantic. I suppose that in a sort of confidence I may mention that by private liberality of a Scottish advancer of science a lectureship of Agricultural Entomology is being endowed at Edinburgh University, but then comes the rather comical difficulty: Who ever is to take the position of lecturer? I am complimented by the expression of a wish from the authorities who have the election in hand that I should take it; but then Lady Professors are not admitted in Scotland. We know of “one man” fit for the purpose, Professor Allen Harker, of the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester. He would do well, and as much desires the post as we wish to put him in it, but then the Principal of the Royal Agricultural College is very much set against his holding the post, as well as his Professorship at the college. It is a great puzzle. I have been doing my very best to help the Professor of Agriculture—a member of the appointing body—to find a suitable man, but what will come of it I do not know. This is not private amongst friends, but it is not yet before the public. Why, with you, I believe in a day you could fill the chair. I think I could do all that is wanted, but then, oh! Shades of John Knox!

I am hoping each day to receive the copy of “Insect Life” Professor Riley kindly sends me, and to see what the Association of Official Entomology did at Washington.

[_Cablegram._]

_December 28, 1889._

Is not “Paris-green” the same as “Scheele’s-green,” that is, arsenite of Copper, not arseniate? With us arseniate of copper is a bluish powder; please write.[72]

_January 20, 1890._

I am exceedingly obliged to you for so kindly and promptly replying to my enquiry about the arseniate. I thank you most heartily, and Professor Saunders also, for so very kindly taking the trouble to make me sure how the matter stood.

I have been taking a great deal of pains to make my paper on the Paris-green as plain and sound as I can, but whether I can induce the growers to use it is yet to be seen. If any of your orchard operatives accustomed to application of it should chance to be in England, I believe that the best way to start affairs would be for his services to be engaged at Toddington, and from a proper method of spraying (and, without any doubt, its good effect), we should then, I quite believe, make progress. If you should know of any orchard workers being likely to come over, I should be very glad if you would give me a line, and then if none of my orchard applicants were disposed to engage him, I would myself ask for a lesson and a lecture, and he “should not lack his fee,” as the old ballads say. Unless something is done to rouse the good folks they will go on smearing and smearing until their trees are one mass of grease, and swarming, nevertheless, with caterpillars of all kinds.

Now, I want to mention to you and to Professor Saunders that I have felt obliged to tell Mr. Whitehead, as gently and courteously as I could, that I must decline to continue the assistance which I have given since 1885 to the Entomological part of his work as Agriculture Adviser to the Board of Agriculture. I have recommended professional helpers who can aid him in the technical identifications, and if he needs more aid on general matters I have suggested that he should apply to Professor Harker, who has a great deal of strictly technical entomological knowledge, and of late years has given much attention to the agricultural application of it.

Even if the post of “Entomologist” should be offered to me, I should not think myself justified in accepting, for my great wish in my work is to be of immediate use, and if I had to wait for permission from boards and committees, &c., &c., before I came down on pests that want attention by return of post, I should not feel in the right place. Please forgive my telling you this story about myself, but though of course it is only meant for private friends, I thought I ought to let you know. My own work has steadily increased to such an extent that, with this sort of underground (unacknowledged) Government work in addition, I did not feel able to do full justice to it, and especially I wanted more time for experiment and correspondence.

_February 13, 1890._

Many thanks for your kind congratulations on my better health. I am really better now. Work was bearing me down so very seriously I was obliged to make some degree of alteration. I regretted very much indeed not continuing any help I could give to Mr. Whitehead about his entomological Government work, but it was too severe a task, and it prevented my giving proper attention to my own, and likewise when the post of Agricultural Adviser was avowedly a paid one, I felt, and my friends felt, that if aid were needed it ought to be on a business footing and obtained from professional helpers.

_March 24, 1890._

I thank you very heartily for the little box of _X. dispar_ which you have kindly spared, for your own paper on the “Mediterranean Flour Moth” preceding the copy in the “Canadian Entomologist,” and for all the information in your always truly acceptable letters. The little beetles came quite safely. I divided them duly, and I have no doubt both Mr. Janson and Canon Fowler will be very much pleased to possess them.

Our Worcestershire and Toddington people are really roused to see about these weary caterpillars. We have formed a “committee of experiment” with two or three very sensible and able men at the head, and I officiate as their entomologist, and benefit the stationer, at least! You should see the sheets of paper covered with sage advice!

At present I am trying to keep well before them that the very centre of all advance is to arrange our “washes” and our means of applying them, so that we may be able to destroy the hordes about May or June, when they are really and evidently doing harm. Your information is invaluable, not only in itself but because whatever may be advanced I can say Mr. Fletcher advised it, or more often, reported its success in Canada, and I feel secure. I really hope we shall make progress; the leading people are quite weary of this everlasting greasing, but I certainly do feel that our only excuse for asking you so many questions about it, is your own great knowledge of the subject, and great good nature; and, indeed, I am most truly grateful.

Professor William Fream, of Downton College of Agriculture, has just been appointed, by unanimous vote of Council of our Royal Agricultural Society, to be Associate Editor of their journal. This is such an excellent appointment it delights me. Professor Fream is an old friend of mine, so that besides the great benefit to the society of having such an able man in the post, I gain a skilled and heartily helpful colleague.

I hope that you will come over to England this summer, it would be such a benefit to me and such a pleasure both to my sister and myself. We hope you will stay here as long as you can make it convenient. This is a very good centre, and Rothamsted [the great English Agricultural Experiment Station] is only about four and a half miles off, and I am quite sure the staff would be delighted to show you everything.

_July 7, 1890._

I believe that after our hard fight we have won the victory and Paris-green is now acknowledged, so far as the area of the work of our Committee has spread, as an indispensable insecticide in orchard-growing on a large scale. The caterpillars have been killed and the leafage not injured, and the Superintendents at Toddington are, up to date, quite satisfied and grateful. We are greatly indebted to you for your kind and able help, and what it has been to me I cannot say. It would fill a volume to record the progress of our work. It at first appeared as if the spirit of folly had got into the heads of the opposition; everything imaginable turned up one after another, and, as Entomologist to the Committee, I have hardly had a day’s peace till now for weeks or months. We had one definite combination against us, and when all seemed quiet the beekeepers raised a commotion. This had to be answered publicly, but it seemed self-evident that if we did not spray when the trees were in flower we would not hurt the bees. One of our members made a commotion about his own health, and I had to point out to him that if he were not used to standing out in a March wind slopping with cold water (only I put it more politely) he was likely to feel uncomfortable.

If we meet, as I hope we may some day, I am sure you would be entertained with “The rise and progress of Paris-green.” But really all the work and terrible anxiety have tried me very much, and I am going to have a little holiday with my sister for a couple of days at Oxford as a refreshment.

_October 6, 1890._

You encourage me very much indeed by all you so kindly say, and I value your approval of my new book greatly, but I always feel, and I try to acknowledge, that the real usefulness of my work is derived from the kind co-operation I am allowed the benefit of. Just look at the Paris-green matter. I quite sheltered myself behind your name as an active referee. The good folks were hard of belief anyhow, but I really doubt if I could have driven the nail home without having you to fall back on. But for the pain that it could not fail to give, the history of our Evesham Committee’s work, and what we had to meet, would be a most interesting chapter, and at last we had perfect success!

I think I told you of the wonderfully diseased strawberry plants, looking more like pieces of cauliflowers placed on the ground than their own graceful forms. Dr. Ritzema Bos has found that this is from the presence of a _Tylenchus_ (eel-worm) (figs. 47 and 49), hitherto undescribed, and is going to bring out a preliminary notice in November, and as some portion of the observations (not the scientific parts) were mine, he will kindly let me use what I need for my Report. He is a very kind colleague.

_November 18, 1890._

My sister is delighted to send you two copies of her Hessian fly maggot diagram, which she hopes you will kindly accept. This, as she says, is “her first public appearance,” so she is rather anxious! But I have been doing my best to ensure her picture a good reception, and I revised it very carefully before it went out. I think you will like it. It should accompany this letter, but it comes so very near parcel post limitations of size that if it does not arrive please expect it shortly in a different travelling dress, by book post.

_December 22, 1890._

For your collection you will, I think, like a regular letter of our good old Professor Westwood, but this is not in the least characteristic. He usually takes a postcard, and into it, by small writing, and adding in little bits where there is room, he gets in a surprising quantity of instructive matter. Mr. Meade’s letter you would perhaps care for, as he is one of our leading Dipterists—he is very kind to me in identifying whenever I ask him; and the letter from Mr. Hormuzd Rassam is a contribution from my sister. He was, I suppose, our greatest British explorer in Assyria (after Sir Henry Layard) and was for a long time one of the prisoners of King Theodore in Abyssinia (to liberate whom this country went to war). I am not sure whether you saw him when you were at Spring Grove, but he was a near neighbour, and when he went on his Assyrian trips used to leave his very charming wife, and untoward little flock of Chaldee children, in what he was pleased to call “our care.”

Many thanks to you for such gratifying notices of my Manual. They are only too kind, but it is very encouraging to have such approval, and very refreshing too, for sometimes I am nearly eaten up by anxiety.

I think the beneficial effect of Paris-green is quite established, and I hope that the use of it may spread widely next season; I fully believe that in it or in London-purple, lies the sole hope of keeping in check the crowds of miscellaneous kinds of moth caterpillars which appear with the leafage. In my fourteenth Report (that is, in the paper on orchard caterpillars which I am now preparing for it) I have tried to dwell with even tedious repetition on the points of the small quantity of the Paris-green to be used, and also the importance of the fluid being distributed as a mist or fine spray so as to coat the leaves, but on no account to be allowed to drip. Some of the good people seem to have an idea that they cannot have too much of a good thing, and results are dismal.

I am getting on as steadily as business allows with my new Manual. There are many new papers, and such subjects as Wireworm, Hop aphis, and others come out almost as new papers when the information which has been contributed piece-meal or in Special Reports, is sifted, and the information arranged in order. I am replacing figures that were not all that could be wished, with new ones. I am very anxious indeed to bring out what may be a really sound, up-to-date book, of our most important observations here. I think it will be about a quarter longer than my present edition, and “demy” instead of “crown” 8vo., so that it may be of comely form.

Economic Entomology is really doing better here. Our Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland are looking about for an Entomologist, and this is a good step. [Dr. Stewart MacDougall was appointed to fill the office.]

_December 23, 1890._

I have at once replied to your inquiry as shortly as I could manage, for I know how valuable space is, but indeed I shall be quite hurt and annoyed!—and your report will not give a right view!—unless you say that we applied to you, and that our work was in colleagueship. I really do not know whether I could have worked as was requisite, unless I could have had the advantage of being able to quote from your letters.

_February 2, 1891._

Would you think me very greedy if I were to ask you for another copy of the “Proceedings of the Convention of Fruitgrowers,” 1890. It would be a most acceptable help to the Evesham Fruit Experiment Committee. I should very much like them to read what you say about Paris-green, &c., but I am afraid if they had my copy it might not come home again. I have formed a short paper on “Paris-Green, its Uses and Method of Application for Prevention of Orchard Moth Caterpillars.” I think it is all right, I have been very careful and plain, and I thought we must have some directions out before the season’s work begins. We are finding wingless Winter moths and some other kinds going up the trees now, and this shows that there is no good trusting only to grease-banding, for we should have really to grease from October to April to catch all the offenders! Our intermittent frosts let the creatures appear at intervals in a way which I suppose you are quite free from in Canada. Surely it should be recorded of me,

“SHE INTRODUCED PARIS-GREEN INTO ENGLAND”!

You should see the mass of correspondence since this time last year, from the first feeble efforts, through opposition and all sorts of things, up to success. The work is well begun, and though I may in fun mention myself, our Experimental Committee has worked wisely and grandly. Now they are going to publish the reports of all the members who have sent them in. That by Mr. Wise[73] is very good indeed, and I am to write a preface for them, so I can show the teachings, where they agree, and why they differ.

We have had a long spell of cold weather, bringing great suffering to the poor, and to my sister and myself the loss of a brother, who was “coldstruck” and carried off almost instantaneously by _angina pectoris_. I had a temporary share in troubles from a severe fall, my feet going from under me down a slope on hidden ice, and sending me down on the back of my head; but I think I am right again now.

There is a great want over here of some kind of lesson book for village schools telling something that would interest the boys—possibly, too, the girls. I do not know whether I could manage it, but I am thinking of trying to take some thirty or so of the very commonest attacks—including a very few to stock, which boys always care about—and seeing what I can do. I have a hope that through the boys we might get at the agricultural labourers and cowmen.

I like your address very much at the Economic Entomologists’ meeting in reply to Professor Riley’s grand and comprehensive address; but as yet I have not been able quite to make out the scope of the Society’s arrangements for extra-American members. It must be a great pleasure to all members who can meet, to talk over serviceable points, and a great benefit conferred on the country, but I am puzzled about the external bearings. It does not seem to affect me say, for example, in my communication with such kind friends as yourself and Dr. Lintner. I would venture any way, I think, to ask at your convenience for advice or instruction, and where I can afford information I shall think myself honoured and happy to render it.

But I do not understand qualification. You have the names of Mr. C. and Mr. S. on your list. I do not know the gentlemen, so cannot tell what they may be doing, but our grand old chief, my entomological master, and friend almost of a lifetime, dear old Professor Westwood, is not there, and yet _ex-officio_ as Hope Professor of Zoology he lectures on Entomology (to the best of my belief) regularly at Oxford. And what work Dr. Lindeman does! It would be a great help over here if we had some such Society. My work is so very solitary, but I do what I can.

Dr. Fream’s lectures [Steven course in Edinburgh University] have been quite a success. This delights me. Professor Wallace has been exceedingly pleased with the sound manner in which he built up his Agricultural Entomology in the students’ minds, and I think the course has given great satisfaction. He is a very sound worker, and I should greatly like him to be my collaborateur at the Royal Agricultural Society of England. I have not brought the subject forward yet, but if there were an Assistant Entomologist who might present my Reports instead of my personal attendance being necessary in all the business hurry of that great number of gentlemen, it would relieve me of a very distasteful part of my work.

_March 23, 1891._

We have just got a full stream of applications for gratuitous distribution of “Paris-green” pamphlets, so we are very anxious to keep all in hand. I greatly hope that this will take hold. We broke through many objections last year, and now we can point to saved crops, and no disastrous massacre of gardeners—not even a sparrow defunct; also a lessened amount of Winter moth in autumn, and a glorious promise of flower bud on trees which have been reported on. Last year we did not know where to turn for a proper sprayer; now, on the day before yesterday there was to be a “contest of sprayers” at the Crystal Palace. I think this shows of itself how the matter on insecticide sprayings has come forward. I am fairly broadcasting the P.G. pamphlets. Many years ago when a railway bridge on a new method of construction was made over the Wye (plate XXVI), near my old home, the natives were “afraid for their lives” to go over it, but the ingenious plan was struck, of running any one gratuitously over and back all day long—the trains of trucks were crammed, the people shouted for joy, and the victory was won; and now I am carrying out the same principle. Gentle and simple, wise and very unwise, are wanting “Paris-green” pamphlets, and I hope that by the sheets of advice, &c., that have to be sent accompanying, that the very silliest souls will not do harm; and meanwhile we are getting the subject popularised. You will think that I am _tête montée_ about it, but it has been a long, severe labour, and I thoroughly believe that on the adoption of the arsenical insecticides depends the success of the English orchard growing in the future.

So far as I see, the “grubs” have not been the least the worse for the cold of the recent frost so long as they were in their self-made shelters below ground, but we carried devastation amongst hundreds of Cockchafer grubs, _Melolontha vulgaris_, by ploughing. The larvæ were too torpid to bury themselves, and the birds disposed of them very thoroughly.

Dr. Lindeman writes that he “had a district inspection set on foot” to find presence of _Tylenchus devastatrix_ in Russia, but “always with negative results.” This is very interesting.

[Illustration:

PLATE XXVI. RAILWAY BRIDGE ON THE WYE, NEAR CHEPSTOW. ]

[Illustration:

1, Adults; 2, anterior of female, showing mouthspear; 3, embryo in egg—all greatly magnified, anterior portion 440 times (from figures by Dr. J. Ritzema Bos). One of the causes of clover-sickness. “Tulip-rooted” oat plant.

FIG. 47.—STEM EEL-WORMS, _TYLENCHUS DEVASTATRIX_. ]

_June 26, 1891._

Did I tell you that my sister has been preparing a set of twenty-four diagrams—same size and in the same style as that of the Hessian fly? These are of our most destructive or most remarkable insect pests—and our Royal Agricultural Society has approved so highly of those which are printed that they have arranged for her to transfer to them the ownership of copyright of the set. This gratifies her very much. They pay her “out of pocket” expenses of printing and she presents the copyrights and her work. I think they form a very beautiful collection, and I believe the Society means to bring them out (together with my previous ones—p. 99) in little half-dozen sets. Thus, one set for village schools, one for fruit-growers, one for forest use. I hope they will be very useful in this way for those who do not wish to purchase the whole.

We have certainly good proof this year that in our insular climate cold does not “kill the grubs.” If it were possible it would even seem the Entomons were the better for it.

_September 26, 1891._

A letter came from Adelaide to announce Mr. Frazer Crawford’s decease. It was caused by chronic gout and heart disease. He had been as cheerful as usual, and when a friend left him about nine o’clock in the evening he set to work to prepare a scientific article, but not long after he went to bed. On the following morning, October 30th, the servant found the lamp still burning, but Mr. Crawford had quietly passed away as if in sleep with his book, a volume of Cryptogamic Botany, fallen from his hand. He was a perfectly indefatigable worker; even in the last month of his life, weighed down as he was by all the inconveniences and pains of hip disease besides those which took him from us, he prepared a long paper on vegetable and other plant pests for the “Garden and Field,” in which he wrote, besides a review of my Manual. And a warning paper by him on the danger of importing _Phylloxera_ appeared in the Report of the Bureau of Agriculture of South Australia accompanying the notice of his death. As a friend he was excessively valued by all who knew his kindness and his worth, and his loss is deeply regretted at Adelaide. To myself it is a very great cause of regret both as a true friend and an Entomological colleague.

_February 6-8, 1892._

I have this afternoon sent the index to my fifteenth Report up to press, and am now enjoying myself by at least beginning a letter to you. I hope you will like the report. The paper on _Plutella cruciferarum_ (Diamond-back moth) is quite enormously long, but I believe so far as evidence in my hands shows, that, taking all points of the attack together, it has been unexampled in this country before, and I was very desirous to present a trustworthy record, which would bear sifting at every corner as to what did happen, and readers could judge for themselves whether my conclusions are well founded. I think the moths were wind-borne. When the report reaches you I should very much like if you would read the “General Summary,” pp. 157-164, first, or you may really wonder what could have induced me to give such a host of reports on the pest. I greatly doubt whether, without proper identification, we could trust to farmers distinguishing between Diamond-back moth caterpillars and those of Turnip sawfly, and there is no good at all in trusting to their reminiscences! No more than to moths being attracted to the dark side of a lighthouse (see p. 159 of my Report). I have taken great pains to be accurate.

In No. 1 of “Canadian Entomologist” for this year, which arrived on Saturday, the 6th, I read with much interest some of the observations on “Can insects survive freezing?” and I thought perhaps you might like to look at a few slight observations which I read before our Entomological Society in 1879. At that time I was one of the regular daily observers of the Royal Meteorological Society, so I was able to be sure of readings of temperatures, but I could not get nearly as many examples as I wanted of the insects. Mr. Whipple’s experiment, which I have added, was the best. I used to think it very interesting to see how some larvæ would crack across like little bits of stick, and their brethren when thawed would recover themselves. If you think the remarks are of any interest pray make any use that you please of them—it would delight me if they were of any use.

Have you chanced to hear from any quarter that the Mediterranean flour moth (p. 179) has made its appearance in Moscow? It is now a few weeks since Dr. Lindeman wrote me that it had been found there in a chocolate or cocoa store brought by bags from London (England). Apparently the enemy was descended on with full power, and no delay, and he hoped it was stamped out. It puzzled me at first how _kuhniella_ came to be in chocolate, &c., but it was suggested that these food-cake compositions were much adulterated with flour. The pest is steadily spreading here, and you will see in my Report that I have again reprinted a portion of your directions.

The weather has been so wet that very great breadths of wheat-land have remained unsown, so at present I have had little inquiry about the young plant pests, but with warmth and sunshine I expect they will come with a rush. I am just beginning a second edition of my little “Guide.”

[Illustration:

1, Caterpillar; 2, eggs; 3-5, diamond-back moth, natural size and magnified.

FIG. 48.—DIAMOND-BACK MOTH, _PLUTELLA CRUCIFERARUM_, ZELL., _CEROSTOMA XYLOSTELLA_, CURTIS. ]

_August 22, 1892._

After an operation on my knee the joint was right, but the long suffering had lowered my health exceedingly—and great pain pretty constantly in the troubled limb, with occasionally racking neuralgia, reduced me to such a state that I was gravely warned recovery was hopeless unless I lessened the enormous load of work. So as it was the engaged and routine work of my “office” which was so very harassing, I resigned my post at the Royal Agricultural Society as their Consulting Entomologist, and I have ever since been steadily progressing towards recovery. Sleep has returned, and the terrible pain of the neuralgia is gone, and I can work happily and comfortably.

I do not know how it happened, but the work (quite beyond what seemed my work) amplified on all hands—Continental and Colonial, and revision of papers, &c., &c.—until it would have required a good man of business and a staff to see to it all. So I cut the Gordian knot.

I hope not to make any difference at all in my Agricultural Entomological work for the country, especially as referee for the farmers and fruit-growers and the agricultural papers; also to continue my Annual Reports—and in all ways to work thoroughly. But this is very different to being obliged to attend _ex-officio_ to people and things who or which appeared to me really often to take up time to little purpose, or even to prevent attention to really important investigation.

_November 21, 1892._

One very great trouble last year was the fungoid attack to cabbage and turnip roots, which we call here “Club” or “Anbury,” or “Finger and Toe.” I do not know whether you have it in Canada. You will recognise it perhaps best under the scientific name of the “Slime fungus” which causes it—_Plasmodiophora brassicæ_ of Woronin. Our people confuse it so constantly with maggot root attacks that they send me a deal of inquiry about it, so I do not think there can be any harm (as I have really studied it for many years) in giving a paper on it in my next Report, and I have secured three excellent photos from life, which I hope will each give a good whole-page figure of the three chief forms respectively.

There are some nice new reports of infestation (so to describe them), and I am working as steadily as I can, but I wish I could get on faster. I envy you your power of doing sound and good work so rapidly.

I have never thanked you for your excellent paper on the “Horn fly” (_Hæmatobia connicola_), which I read with very great interest and benefit, and lodged some of your liberal supply of copies where I thought they would be most useful—including getting attention drawn to the subject in the “Agricultural Gazette.”

Dr. Bethune most kindly asked my sister and myself to come over to stay at Port Hope for the Chicago Exhibition, but delightful as it would be to see all the friends who would be gathered to such a centre, neither sister nor self could manage the fatigue.

Our millionaire lady who is so known for her philanthropic work—Baroness Burdett-Coutts—wrote me that she had been elected President of the, or a Woman’s Branch of the, Chicago Exhibition, and desired an account of the “Genesis of my organisation!” What could I say? There is not a woman but myself and my sister in it. I thought of Canning’s famous “Knife Grinder” story, “God bless you, I have none to tell, sir.” The Baroness wrote that she was obtaining information from the Bishops and the heads of all the Churches, so I suppose her branch is _pur et simple_ religious female organisations.

[Illustration:

1, Larva; 2 and 3, females; 4 and 5, eggs in different stages of development—all enormously magnified (2 from sketch by E. A. O.; the other figures after Prof. Geo. Atkinson).

FIG. 49.—TOMATO ROOT-KNOT EEL-WORM, _HETERODERA (ANGUILLULA) RADICICOLA_, MÜLLER. ]

[Illustration:

Female, showing side and upper surface; larval scales, with legs still visible—all magnified; infested gooseberry twig.

FIG. 50.—CURRANT AND GOOSEBERRY SCALE, _LECANIUM RIBIS_, FITCH. ]

_March 13-16, 1893._

You will see by a copy of the Report I have just issued that we have really got the _Heterodera radicicola_ (Root-knot eel-worm). I should have liked to give the name of the sufferer, but he is our greatest English tomato grower, and it might have injured his business. He is trying many experiments, and at the end of April he is going to give me a report. It would be a pleasure indeed if we managed to make out any serviceable remedy.

At present I am trying to make a fair history and description of the Gooseberry scale, _Lecanium ribis_, Fitch, which has made such a headquarters here (I suppose set up when I was too ill to look after it) that I think I must almost have a chance of finding the desiderated male! But except the few lines by Dr. Signoret we do not seem to have a European description. Locusts came over in imported vegetables and fodder about a month ago, so that I secured three species, but no more are arriving now. Mine and the grower’s chief investigation at present is as to finding measures to check the attack of the Mustard beetle, _Phædon betulæ_, and evil-doers of similar habits, and I am making a kind of link in operations with Messrs. Colman and Messrs. Keen, our two great rival mustard firms, and I greatly hope we shall make some advance.

One great worry is these (to my thinking) unqualified so-called lecturers sent out by the County Councils.

[Illustration:

Beetle, natural size and magnified; maggot, magnified, and natural size on leaf.

FIG. 51.—MUSTARD BEETLE, _PHÆDON BETULÆ_, LINN. ]

_May 22, 1893._

I only knew as a fact a very little while ago that Professor Riley was standing for the post of “Hope Professor of Zoology” at Oxford, vacant by the death of our grand old friend Professor Westwood. Mr. Hachett-Jackson (Professor Westwood’s assistant, I believe) wrote to me very urgently from Keble College, and I responded most heartily, mentioning everything I could think of that might assist Professor Riley’s election. It would have been a benefit to myself past hoping for to have a really great Entomologist like Professor Riley in a definite post over here. The magician’s rod would have beaten all kinds of underhand misrepresentations, scientific and practical, out of the field. Anyway I fear that Professor Riley has hardly a chance, and indeed I wonder that he should contemplate changing his grand central position—central to the whole world—for such a very inferior post without genial colleagues around him.

By book post accompanying I send a copy of Mons. J. Danysz’s paper on _Ephestia_ (Flour moth), to your kind acceptance, in case you have not yet seen it; you will be interested to run it over and see his views of _Pyrethrum_. I very much doubt whether we could get our millers to try it, but it would be different with you.

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