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.