326 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF THE 



several cannibal foes, there are at least two true parasites 

 which attack it. Indeed, "with the knowledge of the Curculio- 

 enemies figured and described two years ago in the American 

 Entomologist, and of the egg-destroying Thrips which I 

 described to you last year, and these two parasites, the grower 

 of our luscious stone-fruits may with good reason begin to 

 hope for better days, for the prospect brightens. There is no 

 philosophy in the statement of Mr. Eansom,* that we can 

 never hope for assistance from parasites, because, as he confi- 

 dently expresses it, " there are none at present but what have 

 always existed ! " Such argument will do for the believers in 

 the old-school doctrine, that everything was created just as we 

 find it; but not for those who rightly comprehend the Dar- 

 winian hypothesis of development, and who believe that life is 

 slowly undergoing change and modification to-day, just as i£ 

 ever has since it had an existence on this earth. For my own 

 part, nothing has ever appeared more absurd than the direct 

 creation of something out of nothing, and I would as soon 

 believe that we all dropped full grown from the clouds, just as 

 we are here to-day, — instead of being brought into the world 

 by natural means and gradually developing into manhood and 

 womanhood, — or that we have the same habits as our barbarous 

 ancestors had, as to believe that the animal life about us is 

 now as it was in the beginning! Therefore, though these 

 Curculio parasites may have existed in this country long ere 

 the white man first beheld its shores, yet they may only have 

 acquired the habit of preying upon the Curculio within the 

 last comparatively few years. Moreover, much benefit may be 

 derived from their artificial pro^^agation and disemiuation, and 

 — Utopian as the scheme may appear to you — I intend next 

 year, Deo volente, to breed enough of the first mentioned 

 species to send at least a dozen to every county seat in Missouri, 

 and have them liberated in some one's peach orchard. By 

 this means I hope to spread them all over the State, and if in 



* Prairie Farmer, June 4th, 1870. 



