ated to such an extent as to be almost worthless. G. N. Milco brought this plant from the old world, some place in Hungary, I think, to Florida, and worked some years to get it to growing. When he found himself financially ruined, I suppose, he got some men in California with money to go in with him, and they have formed a large stock company, and Mr. Milco wrote me a letter last fall in which he told me they had already spent $60,000, with a return of only $3,000. He sent me the powder and told me to distribute it among those persons whom I thought were interested, and I bring it here to-night, and the president of the Horticultural Society is welcome to take it right along with him. It has proved very valuable for the cabbage worm, as it can be applied directly and will not injure the cabbage. It can be applied to house plants. It can be dusted on the flies on the ceiling, and they will all be on the floor in half an hour. A very diluted solution of it can be put on tomato vines or cabbage plants, and will work successfully. It can be burned in a room, and the fumes will kill mosquitoes or anything of that kind. I have never found a single insect that it will not destroy. Spiders succumb exceedingly soon. Last September, when the lake flies were very abundant here in Madison, I found one night thousands of them on the ceiling of my room, attracted by the light of my lamp, the window of my room being open. I dusted them with the insufflator a moment, compressing it twice, sending the cloud directly up against them. In about twenty minutes I counted the dead and dying flies upon my little study table, and there were three hundred and seventyfive lying there. Of course, the number that had fallen on the floor you can imagine. Probably three or four thousand flies were killed by that amount of powder. I went to Mr. Hollister's pharmacy, here in Madison, and told him I would speak of this, and desired him to correspond with Mr. Milco and keep it in stock, and he said he would do so. I hope you will excuse me from any thought of advertising any company. I do not want to do it. But I cannot keep from saying that I believe this to be an excellent article, and if I say so, I must tell you some place where you can get it. It is only for that reason that I

mentioned that you need not use it pure. You can mix it up with flour or any light stuff, or put it into water. It is sent out pure with the understanding that it can be diluted to a certain extent. A box like this which I have here costs one dollar at retail; at wholesale it would be much less. They have three hundred men at work raising these plants and some hundreds of acres planted, and it will become cheaper and cheaper. Their idea is to put down the price as fast as their production will warrant. The insufflator costs twenty-five cents. If any of you want Mr. Milco's address, it is G. N. Milco, Stockton, California. Prof. Westcott One of those boxes passed around the room has nothing in it but lady bugs. It is not uncommon for them to be seen devouring the eggs of the potato beetle, and I suspect the reason some have not seen them is because they have not watched closely enough. There is another reason, that under favorable circumstances in different climates they increase much more rapidly, and if they were much more abundant you would probably notice them, when your attention would not be attracted to them if they were not so abundant. As the potato bug has increased, and by its eggs provided food for the lady bug, the latter has of course increased, because there was plenty of food for it to live upon. I hardly know whether the gentleman was facetious in asking whether to potato beetle was a real pest. I think if he had seen some hundreds of acres thoroughly devoured by them, he would admit that it was a pest. But the lady bug you will find if you look thoroughly.

Mr. Roberts I did not mean any joke. I wanted to find out to what extent it was.

Mr. Plumb Is it the beetle or the larva that devours the egg? Prof. Westcott-Both; but the larva does the most, and if you have them on your plants around the house you might easily in the summer time, by looking for them, catch the larvae and put them on the plant and they will catch them clean. Take a net made of mosquito bar or some light muslin and sweep the grass in the summer and you will have no difficulty in obtaining enough for any purpose of that kind. The only difficulty is in identifying them.

20-W. S. A. S.

Mr. Ames-Is the cabbage worm a native of this country or England?

Prof. Westcott-It comes from England. We have not yet retaliated on them by giving them the Colorado potato beetle. The time will come when it will make its way to the other side of the water and no doubt spread, although they have been very successful in keeping it out up to the present. The cabbage worm is a close relative of two others of this country which resemble it very closely, but it happens that their larvæ do not trouble you especially, and so they have not been noticed much. The one that feeds on the cabbage has come in by stages, traveling sixty or seventy miles a year to the West. It has now left fields in the East where it was not so injurious as it is here. I happened to be in Warsaw, Illinois, when the potato beetle first crossed the Mississippi river, and I had an opportunity of noticing how far east it made its ravages from year to year, and it seems as though the cabbage beetle was doing the same from East to West as the potato beetle did from West to East. I know nothing better for it than to kill all the butterflies you find upon the cabbages. If you tie a net to a stick and let the children catch them, unless you have objections to letting your children learn to kill anything, it will be sport for the children and will save your cabbages. Eternal vigilance is the price of cabbages and potatoes.

Mr. Roberts - The common toad eats the potato beetle.

FRIDAY, February 4, 9 o'clock A. M.

Convention met, President Fratt in the chair.

Clinton Babbitt, Beloit - Mr. President and Gentlemen: I have been requested to speak upon the duties of the state to the state fair, but not having had over half an hour to attend to it, I have been unable to prepare extended minutes or to give the subject such consideration as would enable me to handle it as it should be.

The revised statutes of Wisconsin, chapter 60, section 1457, specifies the objects and power of the State Agricultural Society

in the following words: "The objects of the society are to promote and improve the condition of agriculture, horticulture and the mechanical, manufacturing and household arts, and for such purposes only it may take, hold and convey real and personal estate, the former not to exceed in value ten thousand dollars. Section 1458. The executive committee of said society shall keep an account of the expenditure of all moneys appropriated to it by the state, and of all other receipts and expenses, and shall collect, arrange and collate all the information in their power in relation to the nature and preservation of soils, the cultivation and growth of crops, the breeding and management of stock, the application and character of manures and fertilizers, the introduction of new cereals and other grains and other agricultural subjects, and report the same, together with a statement of their doings and such account of their expenditures, to the governor in January in each year, to be by him laid before the legislature." The wisdom of this statutory enactment is approved by you and by all right thinking citizens of this state. Eliminated from the baleful influence of politics, this society stands as a palladium of universal good alike to one and all. To promote and improve the condition of agriculture, horticulture and the mechanical, manufacturing and household arts covers the scope of civilization. As such it should be greeted alike by business men whose code of exchange is honor, and by sacrificing labor, God's banking capital of the poor. Farmers bred to the plow and independent should not be expected to fawn around every annual assemblage of the legislature for paltry appropriations, but should demand the passage of a law appropriating a contingent fund of at least ten thousand dollars each year, for the accomplishment of the object for which this society was organized.

You see by this statute what the Agricultural Society is intended to do and what our law-makers expect us to do. I would like to ask if that body, who are the representatives of all the people of this state, can expect to ask everything for nothing?

The rapid development of the great west, in which Wisconsin has her equal and just cause for congratulation, is another and higher incentive to more thorough work in civilized progress.

Public institutions are encouraged by the state, both educational and reformatory. There is no better means of education than the State Fair offers, if properly conducted.

Now, gentlemen, you may furnish treatises upon agricultural subjects covering many pages; corn-growing, stock-raising, manufacturing, the household arts and everything that comes into the scope of this statutory enactment, and you will understand that it requires a great deal of time and patience to go through and thoroughly read them so that they can be understood; but you present upon the fair ground a fine display of cattle, of sheep, of horses and everything in the shape of manufacturing, and it can be seen and compared; and a young man can gain more information in from three to five days' close observation than he can gain in the study of the best works upon those subjects in three years.

I claim that that is a system of education which is coming right home to the people, and can be thoroughly understood and comprehended.

Suitable buildings erected for the present and future age upon grounds owned by the Society, and to be permanently located, have now become a necessity.

It is, however, a very difficult subject to thoroughly master; there are so many diversified interests, and it seems that our fair does not bring in the whole state but only about perhaps a radius of sixty miles. We ought to have some way so that we could have permanent buildings, and at the same time bring in all the people.

I have thought that perhaps it would be best for the State Fair to be conducted in the way of a circuit, the same as these horsemen run their institutions; that is, for instance, have Madison as the central point, have La Crosse or Portage as the next point, Fond du Lac or Oshkosh the next, Milwaukee perhaps the next, and back again to Madison, with permanent buildings at all those places. That is so far away in the prospect, however, that I have confined myself to the idea of occupying the grounds where we now are. The State Fair on wheels is the other view of the case. The State Fair on wheels is after all, in my opinion, impracticable