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.
------------------------------------------------------------------------