Abstract
THE preservation of our garden and field crops from the attacks of injurious and destructive insects is a study which Miss E. A. Ormerod has made specially her own and which she has carried out with such signal success. Miss Ormerod's labours in popularising the subject so as to bring it within the knowledge of all classes in any way connected with agricultural and gardening pursuits are too well known to need even a reference, so thoroughly has she at heart the welfare of our food crops and field produce that she has taken other steps, besides the dissemination of her well known books, to bring the importance of the subject before those who are not likely to be reached by the works in question. We refer to the prize offered by her at an agricultural show held at Frome last year, the result of which was satisfactory in drawing a considerable amount of attention to the subject, and one of the outcomes of which has been the preparation of a series of object lessons, so to speak, which have been elaborated from the plan of Mr. W. H. Haley, who took the prize at Frome last year. The plan of these lessons is as follows:—One insect is taken as an example and the life-history of this particular insect is illustrated by showing the creature in all its stages of development where practicable, or by neat and accurate-coloured drawings of pupa, larva, and perfect insect, each stage of which is carefully labelled, then a spray or twig of the plant attacked, or a model showing the insect's ravages is given, and in many cases also the parasites which attack the insect itself. Beneath this is carefully printed the life-history of the particular insect, and an enumeration of the plants upon which it feeds; and, finally, under the head of “Prevention and Remedies,” some brief but concise instructions how to proceed to rid one's crops of the pest. All this is arranged on a cardboard mount 12 inches long by 8 inches wide, and placed in a box with a glass cover, so that one insect only is treated of in one case, thus making the information imparted very clear, and preventing all confusion. Of the insects treated in this way are the turnip and cabbage gall weevil, turnip moth, turnip fly, cabbage aphis, large white cab bage butterfly, cabbage moth, vine beetle, bean beetle, pea and bean weevil, winter moth, American blight on apple, magpie moth on gooseberry, celery-leaf miner, silver moth, beet or mangold fly, click beetle and wire-worms, goat moth, lacky moth, daddy-long-legs, and onion fly.
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J., J. Insect Ravages . Nature 32, 524–525 (1885). https://doi.org/10.1038/032524a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/032524a0