ISi iNDinccT iNJuniES caused by insects. 



its loosening the roots of corn and grass by burrowing 

 amongst them : but my friend Mr. Stickney, the intel- 

 ligent author of a treatise upon this insect, is inclined 

 to think from his experiments that it feeds on the roots 

 themselves. However tliis may be, the evil produced 

 is evident ; and it appears too from the observations 

 of the gentleman last mentioned, that this animal is 

 not killed by lime applied in much larger dcses than 

 usual ^. 



Our national beverage ale, so valuable and hearten- 

 ing to the lower orders, and so infinitely preferable to 

 ardent spirits, is indebted to another vegetable, the 

 hop, for its agreeable conservative bitter. This plant 

 so precious has numberless enemies in the Lilliputian 

 world to which I am introducing you. Its roots are 

 subject to the attack of the caterpillar of a singular 

 species of moth (Ilepialus Humuli, F.), known to col- 

 lectors by the name of the ghost, that sometimes does 

 them considerable injury''. — A small beetle also {Hal- 

 tica concinna) is particularly destructive to the tender 

 shoots early in the year ; and upon the presence or ab- 

 sence of Aphides, known by the name of the JIt/, as 

 in the case of peas, the crop of every year depends ; so 

 that the hop-grower is wholly at the mercy of insects. 

 They are the barometer that indicates the rise and fall 

 of his wealth. 



If the beer-drinker be thus interested in the history 

 of these animals, equally so is the drinker of tea. In- 

 deed sugar is an article so universally useful and agree- 

 able, that what concerns the cane that produces it seems 

 to concern every one. This also affords a tempting 



» Stickney 's Observations on the Grub. ^ Dc Gecr, i. -187. 



