LETTER V. 



INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS, 



INDIRECT INJURIES. 



iriA viNG detailed to you the direct injuries which we 

 suifer from insects, I am now to call your attention 

 to their indirect attacks upon us, or the injury which 

 they do our property ; and under this view also you 

 will own, with the fullest conviction, that they are not 

 beings that can with prudence or safety be disregarded 

 or despised. Our property, at least that part exposed 

 to the annoyance of these creatures, may be regarded 

 as consisting of animal and vegetable productions, and 

 that in two states ; when they are living, namely, and 

 after they are dead. I shall therefore endeavour to 

 give you a sketch of the mischief which they occasion, 

 first to our living animal property, tlien to our living 

 vegetable property ; and lastly to our dead stock, whe- 

 ther animal or vegetable. 



Next to our own persons, the animals which we em- 

 ploy in our business or pleasures, or fatten for food, 

 individually considered, are the most valuable part of 

 our possessions — and, at certain seasons, hosts of in- 

 sects of various kinds are incessant in their assaults 

 upon most of them. — To begin with that noble animal 

 the horse. — See him, when turned out to his pasture, 



VOL. I. h 



