26 MARKET GARDENING. 



we pause, for there is opened a volume of nature new to 

 most men, and a source of unexpected pleasure. At the 

 beginning of this century any investigation into the 

 agency of insects, for good or evil, in connection with 

 Yegetation, was scarcely considered as belonging to gar- 

 dening ; their eggs passed unnoticed, and the ravages of 

 the larvse were looked upon frequently as atmospheric 

 blights beyond control, l^ow the entomologist is con- 

 sulted every day by the agriculturist and gardener, and 

 no section of the museum of the United States Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture is more interesting than, that 

 devoted to entomology. Countries of temperate climates 

 in an undeveloped condition support a limited number 

 of species of insect life, and they are generally harmless 

 to vegetation, but, under culture, conditions favorable to 

 their increase are presented. One of these conditions is 

 the wanton destruction of birds, after which follow the 

 myriad tribes of insects which feed upon vegetation ; 

 species not alone native to the country, but brought in 

 the course of commerce from all parts of the world. 

 For example, the Hessian fly is supposed to have been 

 brought here in the straw used by the Hessian troops 

 during the Revolution. The cabbage butterfly was 

 brought first into Montreal in cases of crockery from 

 Holland. In ten or twelve years it has extended from 

 the St. Lawrence to the Rio Grande. 



The intelligent culturist will be brought to notice 

 the effect of various forms of potash, nitrogen and lime ; 

 he will gradually be drawn into geological research, for 

 he must study the peculiar features of the soil. Finally, 

 he will find that the birds are his co-partners in the gar- 

 den, and the common tomtit or sparrow will no longer 

 be looked upon with a careless eye by reason of his dull 

 colo-rs, but each one welcomed as the destroyer of mil- 

 lions of injurious insects. Even so the bat, ugly and of 

 nocturnal habit, will no longer be driven away or looked 



