38 NORTH AMERICAN INSECTS. 



wood, and because some of them deposit their eggs in the 

 crevices of the bark of many trees. I do not here speak 

 of the destructive Wood-borers or Weevils, but only of those 

 insects which feed on decayed or rotten wood ; and if our 

 farmers call these creatures wood-destroyers, I think the 

 beetles may with more propriety apply the epithet to the 

 farmers themselves, who really destroy an immense amount 

 of timber unnecessarily, and even hire men to help them do 

 so. I allude to the common practice of inclosing our lands 

 with expensive wood fences, which, indeed, may be neces- 

 sary in a newly-settled country like the Far West, but 

 which are not at all necessary in our old, well-cultivated 

 States. 



I am aware that this subject has been somewhat agitated 

 of late among agriculturists, and I trust these remarks may 

 reach the ears of some who will be convinced, with me, 

 that the practice of laying out whole farms with these ex- 

 pensive inclosures is a wasteful, extravagant throwing away 

 of wood. I believe it to be a fact that, if our country had 

 not been wonderfully favored with inexhaustible coal-mines, 

 our woodlands would long ago have been deprived of their 

 trees, and fuel would have to be sold by the pound. Now 

 our farmers not only incur the expense of timber and man- 

 ual labor in building these wooden fences, but they must 

 be at the additional expense of repairing them every year ; 

 and if all this were entirely avoided they would actually 

 realize more benefit from their estates. It is true that if 

 there are no fences in the country the cattle must stay at 

 home, lest they injure the fields and meadows, and that ev- 

 ery farmer on this continent would be obliged to resort to 

 stall-feeding, and keep his cows, oxen, hogs, etc., in the 

 barn-yards. But by doing so he will be the gainer, for he 

 will save, first, his timber ; second, the wages for making 

 his fences ; third, his cows, by being kept at home, will 

 produce more milk, butter, and cheese ; fourth, he will save 



