42 
caused by them in 1873 being estimated at $40,000,000. As a partial compensa- 
tion it has been proposed to use the grasshoppers as food, as is the custom in the 
Kast, and, according to those who have tried them as an article of diet, there is 
at least no occasion for anyone to starve, even if every vestige of his crops were 
devoured. In the case of some cqually destructive insects even this last recourse 
fails, for they are so small, and sometimes so unsavory, that they can serve 
neither for soup nor roast. Of such is the chinch bug, which, although no bigger 
than a grain of wheat, destroys millions of bushels of this and other grain every 
year. The damage wrought by them in 1864 has been estimated at $100,000,000, 
and a like sum was the cost of their ravages in 1874. As they are not equally 
abundant every season the average annual loss caused by them may be set down 
at $25,000,000, or considerably more than would alleviate the present distress in 
freland. In the Southern States the cotton worm—the larva of a moth called 
Aletia argiilacea—causes a yearly loss of $50,000,000, representing an amount of 
raw material sufficient to furnish cotton to clothe our whole population for at 
least five vears. 
A still smaller insect, known as Phyloxera, a species of plant-louse, has, 
within the last few years, ruined over 700,000 acres.of the fairest vineyards of 
France, and has almost destroyed one of the leading industries of the kingdom. 
You are all aware of the immense sum paid by that country as a war indemnity ; 
well, it has been stated by ahigh authority that she would be cheaply rid of 
these American invaders at the same price paid to the Germans for vacating her 
- territories. The failure of foreign vintages, however, to most of us, is of far less 
importance than the deficient yield of our grain fields. Wine is the luxury of 
the few ; whiskey—I meant to say bread—the necessity of the many. In addi- 
tion to the insects just mentioned, there are countless myriads belonging to 
different species which attack other plants. Our fruit and forest trees are 
attacked in root, trunk, branch, leaf, bud, flower and fruit. Seventy-five species 
infest, more or less, the apple tree, and a similar number our beautiful elm. 
About a hundred varieties are found upon the lofty pine and stately oak, while 
every kind of tree and shrub has 1ts special enemies. In our fields, heavy tolls 
are levied on the various crops, and in our gardens they rob us of our green peas 
and asparagus, our young corn and. salads, our cucumbers and tomatoes; vege- 
tables and flowers alike suffer by their depredations. The yearly loss inflicted 
on agriculturists in the United States and Canada is estimated to exceed 
$250,000,000.. When we further find these minute enemies riddling our 
garments, revelling in our larders, and not hesitating even to pierce and torment 
our bodies, we may be led to consider them unmitigated pests, present in this 
fair world only to plague and harm us. But we will find, on examination of the 
insect world, that there are numerous and extensive families of beneficial insects 
preying upon the obnoxious ones, and otherwise aiding man, and we will be led 
gradually to modify, and, finally, greatly to reverse our former opinions, as we 
find insects occupying a most important part in preserving the balance of nature, 
while man himself is chietly responsible for many of the evils which he suffers 
from them. Linneus has denominated insects “the diligent and faithful 
servants of nature—perpetually engaged in destroying all that is dead, and 
checking all that is living in the vegetable world.” The evidences of this can 
be witnessed daily in our own magnificent forests, tenanted as they are by so 
many destructive and obnoxious insects; and in the tropics, where insects are 
vastly more numerous and of far greater size, the luxuriant vegetation teaches 
us that, under normal conditions, vegetable productions do not suffer to a hurtful 
degree by their myriad enemies. These, by removing all dead and decaying 
vegetation, but clear the ground more rapidly for new growths, while, by devour- 
ing seeds and young plants, and by assisting in the destruction of matured ones, 
they prevent the more rapidly-growing species from crowding out the slower. 
A certain equilibrium is thus maintained until disturbed by the agency of man. 
i 
