TRANSACTIONS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NORTHERN ILL. 241 



While I willingly admit the increase of parasites and predaceous species, 

 to a certain extent, in proportion to the increase of injurious species, yet 

 I am compelled, from the facts bearing on the subject, to doubt the cor- 

 rectness of the hopeful conclusion. The balance can never be restored 

 so long as that other important factor designed by nature to co-operate in 

 this work — the birds — is left out. 



If the predaceous and parasitic insects were the chief, and, as many 

 contend, almost the only agencies worth considering, which kept the ob- 

 noxious species in check in a state of nature, it follows that an increase of 

 the latter was succeeded by a corresponding increase of the former, and 

 the rule ought to hold, to a large extent, at least, as good under the new 

 order of things as the old. The cultivation of the soil and harvesting 

 of crops, no doubt, to a certain extent, disturb the relation between the 

 injurious species and their enemies, but this will not account for the great 

 disparity found between the two classes in districts which have long been 

 in cultivation. 



But laying aside argument and reasoning, and turning to experience, 

 we obtain an answer to this inquiry, which, it seems to me, ought not to 

 be misunderstood. 



Not only does each additional year to our history bring palpably be- 

 fore us the fact that our insect foes are gaining ground upon us, but that, 

 despite the flood of light scientists have been able to throw upon their 

 history and habits, the annual destruction caused by them appears to be 

 increasing even in a greater ratio than the increase of agricultural pro- 

 ducts. Entomologists have been able to suggest methods of coping with 

 a number of species, and of obtaining partial relief from others ; but such 

 species as the "curculio," " codling moth," "chinch bug" and "mi- 

 gratory locust" still remain masters of the field. If we turn to the old 

 world, to such countries as France, England, Germany, Austria, etc., 

 where cultivation has been going on from time immemorial, and where 

 the science of entomology has reached its highest point of perfection', the 

 case is still worse, and has been growing decidedly worse within the last 

 half century, thus showing, beyond contradiction, that the restoration of 

 the balance by the natural increase of predaceous and parasitic insects is 

 a vain hope not likely to be fulfilled. 



Have observing scientists of those countries groped in the dark dur- 

 ing all this time, searching in vain for a remedy ? By no means. Again 

 and again have they pointed to the remedy ; again and again have they 

 sounded the warning, but they have generally been powerless to enforce 

 it. Voices haye been heard all over Europe, pleading for the birds, and 

 foretelling the result of their wholesale slaughter, which has been going 

 on of recent years; but the infatuated devotees of fashion, appetite and 

 sport have succeeded, as they are doing even in our Prairie State, in over- 

 riding all opposition, and the slaughter of the "innocents" has gone on 

 in an increasing ratio. 



Frederick the Great, of Prussia, being fond of cherries, one day 

 ordered a general crusade against the sparrow tribe, because some of them 

 were seen pecking at his favorite fruit. A price of six pfennings a brace 



