STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 281 



on land do insects perform this important work, but also in water. It 

 is insects, together with other important classes of animals, that keep 

 the water of our lakes and ponds clear and in motion, which other- 

 wise would soon become stagnant and foul from accumulating filth 

 and vegetable matter, and make it utterly worthless to man besides 

 filling the air with foul gases. 



The relation of insects to vegetation is a most important and inti- 

 mate one. Through the admirable works of Mr. Darwin we are ar 

 more or less familiar with the important part that insects play in 

 cross-fertilization of plants, and thus in promoting a vigorous and 

 healthy growth. They are also of importance to vegetation by pre- 

 paring and distributing fertilizing material by hastening on decay. 

 You have probably all noticed how soon a dead tree will become rid- 

 dled through and through with the galleries of insects or their larvae, 

 and the loosened bark falling to the ground, soon all will crumble 

 down to dust under the industrious bands of the small workers; and in a 

 few years will the giant of the forest be distributed to serve for a new 

 and more vigorous growth, which may now occupy the very same 

 spot that would else be filled with only the useless and unsightly re- 

 mains probably for a century or more in the slow decay in air unaided 

 by insects. But while thus a large class of insects are occupied in 

 promoting a healthy vegetation by aiding cross-fertilization or by 

 hastening on decay of dead matter and distributing the same as fer- 

 tilizers, others and a most important class is occupied in checking a 

 too rapid growth or increase of vegetation. At first sight this would 

 appear to be a paradox, and only to prove that insects are useless and 

 a plague to man But if we have been lead to understand the balance 

 of nature as a law, and one that is as beautiful as it is comprehensive, 

 we will know that the one class is as important and necessary for the 

 welfare of man as the other. There is a tendency of living objects to 

 increase enormously and to occupy space to the exclusion of all others. 

 Thus if a single species of plant would be allowedjto increase without 

 reserve it would soon come to fill all available space to the exclusion 

 of all other plants of similar habit. An example of this law is fur- 

 nished to every one of you in the tendency of weeds to overrun your 

 grounds, which as native species are much hardier than those we cul- 

 tivate, which can only thrive under the fostering care of man. To 

 keep this tendency within proper bounds nature has provided more 

 than one remedy, but one of the most important ones is undoubtedly 

 insects. Each species of plant has therefore got its corresponding 

 species of insects that are ever ready to keep it within proper bounds. 



