for red spiders, apple-trees half dead with woolly lice, and a miniature cranberry bog displaying the ravages of the fireworm. Some of these are doctored with Paris green, and some with kerosene emulsion, and for some the remedy is yet to be found. For science, as far removed from impatience as from idleness, will watch ten years to see if an insect pupates in the ground or among the leaves of a plant. "Burn the leaves," is obviously the advice if the insect is there; "plough, and plant a crop upon which the insect cannot feed," if it is in the ground.       The question of hibernation has proved another problem. For a long time the cranberry moth of New Jersey evaded its pursuers by its di-morphism; the color of the yellow leaf in the summer, and in the winter as gray as the cold twig to which it clung. Twice in a year instead of once does it pupate and emerge, clothed by protective instinct according to the season.       Respect for the minute intelligences directing these exquisitely endowed organisms grows as we proceed, admiring the architecture of the leaf-roller's nest, examining curiously the winding galleries through which the leaf-miner has eaten its way, wondering at the suspension of the graptæ hooked into buttons of silk of their own spinning. But it is not to admire or be curious or wonder that the entomologist is here, but to help the farmer, the horticulturist, and the gardener to fight their insect enemies. So the letters pouring in at every mail testify. This man complains of "millers" on his grapevine; that one, of "bugs" in the flour; an anxious housewife is frantic over the carpet beetles; and from a Cape Cod cranberry grower comes a complaint of the tipworm. Each petitioner receives the aid which each requires.       The use of the insectary is new. Besides this one, there are only two, one at Cornell University and one at London, the latter a mere show place. Yet an English entomologist estimates the proportion of insects to each plant as six to one. Harris, more conservative, places it as four to one. Prof. Riley, United States entomologist of Washington, places the number of species in the world at not far from ten millions. There are certainly Meteorological Observatory. Showing Pulviometer, Ammometer, And Anemoscope. -- page 70 -- | Previous Page | Next Page | | Town of Amherst Page | Hampshire County | Western MA History & Genealogy | These pages are © Laurel O'Donnell, 2005, all rights reserved Copying these pages without written permission for the purpose of republishing in print or electronic format is strictly forbidden This page was last updated on 12 Sep 2005