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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 14

Report. — Introduction To Report NO. II

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Report.

Introduction To Report NO. II.

It will be seen by the above title of this second instalment of the series of reports upon Insects Injurious to Agricultural Crops that its scope has been somewhat extended. Originally it was intended to confine this Second Report to insects injurious to corn crops, but as the work progressed it was found desirable to include those destructive to grass crops, as some of these insects are common to both. Again it seemed well while dealing with cereals to treat also of pulse-peas and beans-and to describe the principal insects that affect them, especially as some of these crops are liable to be attacked by the same insects. Besides there would hardly have been enough materials for a separate report upon insects injurious to pulse alone, and it is important that their history should be given. A description also of a genus of insects injurious to various kinds of clover is added as being the most important enemies of this order of plants. There are other insects more or less injurious to clover crops, and many others which at times are troublesome to cereal and pulse crops. It would be impossible to include these in a work of this kind, which is intended merely to give a short account of insects that most frequently attack cultivated crops.

Some explanation is necessary as to the arrangement of the monographs in this Report. It would have been difficult to arrange them alphabetically, or according to the recognised scientific classification of insects, and it has been thought better to group them under the respective headings of Corn and Grass, Peas, Beans, and Clover, and to take the insects in each group as far as possible in the order of their injurious effects.

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It may be objected that as the Julidæ and the Vibrio, or Tylenchus tritici are not insects in the scientific acceptation of the term they should not have been included in this series. But these reports are written to convey useful and practical instruction to the cultivators of land, and are not intended to be solely for scientific readers. And it is only following in the footsteps of the great agricultural entomologists John Curtis and Dr. E. L. Taschenberg to describe these creatures destructive to crops in company with true insects. There are other insects which are destructive to the various crops dealt with in this report. It is, however, deemed desirable to treat only of their chief pests, and those which give most trouble, and occasion most loss to cultivators. With regard to these it has been endeavoured to collect all the information that is known about them, and to bring this down to the latest date. It is believed that each monograph is a resume of all that is known of its subject, of its life history, and the means of prevention and remedies against it. It is admitted that in several instances the information is still imperfect, and in compiling this series of reports I have been more than ever impressed with the necessity of enlisting skilled workers in this cause, as well as of urging and encouraging habits of observation among those who superintend the cultivation of the land, and those who work upon it.

Charles Whitehead.

Barming House, Maidstone,