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 
