ORDER I.—BEETLES. 39 
a large amount of manure, which he loses if his cattle are 
allowed to ramble in the woods and pastures; and, lastly, 
by having no inclosures, except around his garden and or- 
chards (and hedges are even here far better than fences), he 
will beautify his whole estate and country by depriving it 
of that confined and prison-like appearance which wood 
fences and stone walls necessarily give it. 
It is a very difficult matter to eradicate inveterate super- 
stitions, and it is equally hard to break up old habits. 
Notwithstanding the plow has been used from time almost 
immemorial, the inhabitants of St. Domingo have not yet 
adopted it, but still prefer the hoe and spade, and to hoe 
and plant an acre of Indian corn is there the work of four 
weeks for one man. But “a word to the wise should be 
sufficient.” 
With regard to wood-destroying insects in general, it 
thust be remarked that they are of the greatest importance 
in the tropics, as well as in those uninhabited countries 
where many hundred miles are often covered with impene- 
trable forests, where hurricanes, tempests, and earthquakes 
break down gigantic trees, which, if left alone, would not 
decay for years, but which are reduced to dust in a short 
time by wood-eating insects, and a new and vigorous vege- 
tation springs up from the soil made 
fertile by that dust. This phenomenon 
may be observed to a certain extent 
even in our own woods. 
One of these Beetles, which, in com- 
pany with its offspring, feeds on rotten 
wood, is 
The Hornep Passatus (Passalus 
cornutus). —'This Beetle is about 1+ 
inches long. It is black, and has a 
Figure 7. 

slender body. Its antennz are rather 
more denticulated than those of the Horned Passalus. 
