STATE HORTICULIUKAL SOCIETY. 99 



plants its fatal ova upon their backs ; and the ferocious Asilus occasionally 

 swoops down and carries them away ; but all these enemies seem to be 

 little more than skirmishers on the flanks of the grand army of the Color- 

 ados, which has marched steadily forward to its destination, till the latest 

 advices report its vanguard within a few leagues of the capitol of Wash- 

 ington. 



We remarked, in speaking of the bark louse, that in its removal 

 natural agencies have done much, and man but little ; but in combatting 

 the potato beetle, this is reversed. Though, as we have just seen, it has 

 many natural enemies, they do not appear to be sufficiently numerous to 

 check its multiplication to any very appreciable extent, except, perhaps, 

 in a few localities. Its destruction, on the other hand, by hand-picking, 

 by machinery, and by Paris green, has been of the most wholesale char- 

 acter, and, if persisted in, as it undoubtedly will be, from the necessity of 

 the case, cannot fail ultimately to make a very decided impression upon 

 their future increase and diffusion. 



The law of nature is harmony, or a just corelation of all her forces, 

 and in all her departments. But this harmony is liable to frequent dis- 

 turbances, and wherever such occur she proceeds at once to rectify them ; 

 sometimes, by special provisions, such as the agency of parasites in the 

 insect world ; and sometimes by the slow but sure process of retribution, 

 by which the disturbing elements are eliminated, even though it involves 

 the death of the offending members. I have seen, for example, an iso- 

 lated orchard in which the notorious canker worm had established its 

 fatal residence. Year after year its beauty waned and its vitality abated, 

 till at the close of the fourth year three-quarters of the trees were dead, 

 and there were not leaves enough upon the remainder to afford sustenance 

 to the famishing insects. The next year, not a leaf nor an insect were 

 to be seen. The cure was complete. The owner may now plow up his 

 orchard and plant it anew, for the enemy has been effectually removed 

 by the process of last resort — the remedy of death. 



So it is in the moral world. The greatest evils, if left unrestrained, 

 will ultimately destroy themselves. Debauchery, licentiousness, dishonesty 

 in business, unprincipled speculation, and all other vices, if not checked, 

 become ultimately exterminated by the terrible diseases and demoraliza- 

 tion which inevitably follow in their train. Any country or city which 

 harbors these vices beyond a certain degree, must perish by a process of 

 inherent dissolution. Such was the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah, of 

 Babylon and Ninevah, of Rome and Athens ; and the destruction of other 

 cities, now flourishing, from similar causes, may, perhaps, be only a ques- 

 tion of time. 



And thus it is that nature is ever tending to restore her lost balances, 

 slowly it may be, but surely ; and we find that we can often save ourselves 

 from much loss by assisting her, or by co-operating with her ; and here 

 it is that the work of the entomologist comes in. In many parts of the 

 field we can put our light artillery into play, and hold the enemy in check, 

 till nature has time to bring her heavy ordinance into position. And it 

 is thus only, by availing ourselves of every instrumentality, and bringing 



