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.”
