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TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



in Massachusetts, to the canker-worm, and rigidly enforced, would not be long in 

 divesting this scourge of nearly all its terrors, and very possibly would remove it 

 altogether in time. 



The causes which have led to the extraordinary increase of insects in Europe are 

 principally twofold ; one of these, the great increase of land under tillage with improved 

 instruments of husbandry, has undoubtedly had something to do with the increase of 

 certain kinds. A man who has only a small patch under cultivation finds it hard enough 

 to keep the destructive subterranean caterpillars from his vegetables. How impossible 

 for him who has hundreds or thousands ? Then deep plowing turns under and out of 

 the reach of their natural enemies some of the most destructive kinds of larva. No one 

 thing has contributed more than this deep plowing to favor the growth and increase of 

 the terrible cockchafer. 



The other cause, and a very prominent one, is the decrease of birds. In some cases 

 this decrease of birds and this increase of insects has been cause and effect. The great 

 Frederick of Prussia once nearly exterminated the sparrows in his kingdom, in a fit of 

 royal wrath, because they took agrarian liberties with his fruit; and what was the conse- 

 quence? The caterpillars, which the sparrows had kept in check, having no one now 

 to prevent their increase, multiplied at such a fearful rate that they swept before them 

 the foliage, and with the foliage all the fruit also. It is said that for two years not a 

 cherry, apple, peach, plum, currant or any kind of fruit could be raised in any portion 

 of the kingdom. Sensible at last of his mistake, this great king, conquered for the first 

 time, in a field where his impotence was but too apparent, yielded to the necessity, and 

 expended more money in re-introducing the sparrow than he had wasted in destroying 

 them, but only after the loss to his subjects of millions of dollars. Shall such a fact as 

 this be dumb to us ? Are we, of this country, only to learn the value of birds after we 

 have destroyed our benefactors? But I will not anticipate. 



From whatever causes it may be, this fearful increase of destructive insects and the 

 terrible devastations it has caused, destroying alike the vineyards of the wine-grower, 

 the orchards of the cultivator of fruit, the gardens of the horticulturist, and the farms 

 and crops of the agriculturist, has naturally caused the deepest alarm and sense of danger 

 to whole communities. The Governments of France, Switzerland, Prussia, Bavaria and 

 other German States, have sought by various expedients to arrest, if possible, this fearful 

 evil. But thus far all their efforts have been almost as unavailing as would be the attempt 

 to bale out the sea. 



Let me give you one striking instance, all the facts of which are well authenticated, 

 and which will serve to teach us several very important lessons as well as afford a 

 remarkable illustration of the enormous amount of destruction that follows the unchecked 

 development of certain kinds of insects. I have spoken of the night-butterfly of Europe, 

 called also the nonne, or nun. The miller, as its name implies, is a nocturnal insect, 

 and is, therefore, one not easy to capture. It is immensely productive, and its larvae 

 feed upon the foliage of forest trees, where, unchecked, they increase very rapidly, 

 completely strip these trees of their foliage, prevent their growth, and in a second season 

 entirely destroy the trees thus twice denuded. Forests thus destroyed are comparatively 

 valueless, and the losses occasioned are at times immense. In the year 1852, the larvae 

 of this night-butterfly appeared in countless swarms in all the forests of Lithuania, East 

 Prussia, Nassau and Poland, as also in the Swalger districts of the Rothebude forests. 

 Early in the month of July the moths made their first appearance in masses that re- 

 sembled white clouds. The forests looked as if they were covered with snow. They 

 were comparatively new to these regions, and came to them from the south, where " the 

 forests had been burned." Here and there attempts were made to meet the impending 

 calamity, the terrible meaning of which the proprietors but too well understood. In the 

 single forest of Rothebude, between the 8th of August and the following May, there 

 were collected and destroyed, by computation, one hundred and fifty millions of the 

 eggs of this insect, and fifteen hundred millions of the female moths. At an enormous 

 expenditure, the trunjcs of the trees were scraped for the eggs, and liberal rewards were 

 paid for both eggs and moths by the proprietors, but all in vain. They were not able 

 to collect much more than half the eggs, and before the I2th of July five hundred 

 acres of pines had been eaten bare and the trees died. In spite of almost superhuman 



