PRODUCTION 



CHAPTER XXXIX 



PLANTS AND ANIMALS AS SOURCES OF USEFUL MATERIALS 



Questions. 1. Why are there injurious insects? 2. Why are there 

 poisonous plants ? 3. Are all things that exist of use to man ? 4. How 

 can we tell what use may be made of a plant or an animal ? 5. Why do 

 people have gardens ? 6. Why do people keep goldfish or other pets ? 

 7. What are the most useful plants and animals ? 



306. Good and bad organisms. What is the use of thistles ? 

 Why are there bedbugs ? Is the milkweed a good plant or a bad 

 plant? What is the good of jellyfish? These questions repre- 

 sent something more than a healthy curiosity about the things 

 discovered. They mean that in the mind of the questioner 

 everything in the world is in some way related to human wel- 

 fare. They mean especially, in many cases, that everything 

 must exist only or chiefly to serve mankind. This point of view 

 is well expressed in a little story told by Thomas Henry Huxley 

 (1825-1895), a great English biologist, but not in exactly these 

 words : 



There was once a black beetle living in a loaf of bread, and she lec- 

 tured her offspring in some such way as this : This is a wonderful world, 

 my dear children, and you should be very grateful for all that has been 

 done for you by our great ancestor, Big Beetle. He made the sun to 

 shine and the rain to fall, so that plants might grow. He made farmers 

 to plow the soil and sow the seed for us, and to harvest the grain. He 

 made truckmen and others to carry and store the grain for us. He made 

 millers and engineers to build mills, so that the grain might be ground 

 into nice white flour. And he made bakers and coal mines and miners so 

 that the flour could be made into bread, so that you and I, my dear chil- 

 dren, might have a comfortable home and plenty of food. 



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