The following notice appeared in the “Times” of March 11, 1901:—
“Miss Ormerod’s Retirement from Entomological Work.”
“Widespread regret will be felt, both at home and abroad, at the announcement which we are able to make, that Miss Eleanor A. Ormerod, after many years of unremitting toil, has decided to discontinue the Annual Reports on injurious insects and common farm pests, which she has prepared for a period now extending to close upon a quarter of a century. When in the year 1877 she issued the first of these annual records, and thus placed at the disposal of the public the fruits of her intimate acquaintance with many departments of natural history, very little systematic work had been done in the direction of saving crops and live stock from the ravages of insect and other pests. In this respect the position of the farmer and the stock-keeper to-day, as compared with what it was in the middle of the seventies, is vastly improved. It is true that the farmer may still lose his turnip and swede crops through the ravages of the active little beetle, which is perversely termed the ‘fly’; that fruit-growers may bewail the loss of their apples and plums owing to the abundant presence of the winter moth; and that stock-keepers may view with dismay the damage both direct and consequential that their cattle incur through the activity of the warble fly. But these and similar losses are entirely preventable, provided that there be no careless indifference, and that time and trouble be devoted to the object it is sought to attain. It is to Miss Ormerod’s persevering efforts that this change is due; it is to her persistent enquiry year after year into the causes of mischief and into the means of removing them that the subject of agricultural entomology, which so long had languished in this country, gradually forced its way to the front, until it has become recognised that some serviceable knowledge of it is indispensable to the mental equipment, and cannot be omitted from the technical training of the aspiring agriculturist. Readily and gratuitously she has answered day after day all inquirers, whilst for twenty-four consecutive years her pen and pencil have been devoted to the preparation of the annual reports, every one of which she has generously published at a nominal price, which year after year involved a substantial loss. ‘But the work was hard,’ she now tells us—and the simplicity of her words renders them eloquent—‘for many years for about five or six months all the time I could give to the subject was devoted to arranging the contributions of the season for the Annual Report of the year.’ In spite of indifferent health, at times accompanied by much physical suffering, Miss Ormerod has carried on her self-imposed task, and the result is that she has revolutionised the subject of agricultural entomology, as it was understood in this country twenty-five years ago. Not only at home, not only throughout the British Empire, but in all progressive countries Miss Ormerod’s name takes first rank amongst the Economic Entomologists of the day, and correspondence reaches her from beneath almost every flag that flies. And, now that the time has come when this talented lady feels it expedient to no longer work at the high pressure which has so long been maintained, all who have benefited by her disinterested labour—and they are very many—will join in the hope that she may long live to enjoy the comparative leisure to which she is looking forward.”
Appendix C (p. [143]).
Contents of Insect Cases Shown at the Bath and West of England Show at St. Albans (May, 1896), now the Property of the University of Edinburgh, kept along with Miss Georgiana Ormerod’s Diagrams in the Museum of Science and Art, Edinburgh.
Case I.—Weevil Attacks to Peas, Beans, and Clover-Seed, and Leafage. 1. Infestations of Pea seed. 2. Infestations of Bean-seed. 3. Clover-seed “Pear-shaped” Weevils. 4. Leaf-eating Weevils, and gnawed Leaves.
Case II.—Attacks to Corn Stems. 1. “Gout Fly” attack to young Barley, also to ear and stalk. 2. Hessian Fly attack, showing Wheat-stems elbowed at point of feeding of Maggot.
Case III.—Infestations of Stored Corn and Meal. 1. Granary Weevils in Wheat. 2. Granary Moth in Wheat. 3. Meal and Flour Beetle in Meal. 4. Mite in Granary Rubbish.
Case IV.—Stored Corn. Common Granary Weevil in Barley.
Case V.—Infestation of Wheat Mills and Stores. Mediterranean Mill Moth, and Flour felted together by its Caterpillars. (A very bad Mill Pest).