OUR INSECT ENEMIES AND HOW TO MEET THEM. 



{Read before the New Jersey State Board of Agriculture at its Annual Meeting at Trenton, 



February 1st, 18S9.] 



It is, I believe, conceded by every intelligent person tbait agri- 

 culture is the greatest of human industries, as, of necessity, it 

 serves as the basis of all others. A sparse human population 

 might exist, upon this globe without tillage of the soil, but the 

 man would not be very far in advance of some of those vegetable 

 organisms which are endowed with powers that enable them to 

 seize and devour, and, it is thought, to digest animal food. All 

 literature, science, and the arts are dependent upon it — yes, civili- 

 zation itself. It was, so far as we have knowledge, the primal 

 privilege granted to man, when he was made in the image of his 

 Maker, ere he was driven from Eden and doomed henceforth to 

 toil, and in the sweat of his face to eat his bread. 



Are figures needed to show the importance of agriculture? 

 Here, in our own country, so remarkably adapted by soil, climate, 

 topography, and extent of territory toi grow to perfection what- 

 ■ever crop may be grown in any of the temperate regions of the 

 globe, as well as in some of the semi-tropical ones, — of our pres- 

 ent population of sixty millions there is an aggTegate agricultural 

 population of twenty-six millions. The toftal value of farm pro- 

 ducts in 1886 was |3,727,000,000 — nearly three and three-fourths 

 billions — an amount quite beyond the need for home consump- 

 tion, and its surplusage — one-tenth of the amount — was sent 

 from our shores, mainly to supply the needs of Europe. 



May you not feel an honest pride in an industry that can show 

 such results? Is it not one that should be respected by every 

 man, in whatever pursuit he may be engaged. Nay, more. Is 

 it not one that should be cherished and encouraged by every 

 possible means, as the con^dction is being more strongly impressed 

 upon each careful student of political economy, that from the 

 products of our broad territory are the less highly favored nations 



