26 WHAT THE SISTER ARTS 



various in its processes and objects, that it is difficult to lay down 

 a general rule with regard to it that will admit of no exceptions ; 

 yet I will venture to propound one, which is as follows : The 

 cultivator whose farm is not more valuable and more productive as 

 one result of each year's tillage, does not understand his vocation, 

 and ought to learn it or quit it. 



Perhaps there is no single field of observation wherein the ex- 

 tent and disastrous effects of ignorance among farmers are more 

 strikingly exhibited than in that of Insect Life and Ravages. It 

 has pleased the All- Wise to subject Agriculture to the chances 

 and perils of Insect depredations, as well as to weeds, drouth, 

 frost, inundation, and other evils. The end of all these is benefi- 

 cence the evolution and discipline of Man's capacities through 

 the necessary counteraction and combat. Plants and domestic 

 animals rightfully look to their owner for efficient protection ; and 

 he who allows his sheep to be killed by wolves, his fowls to be 

 carried off by foxes, or his grain to be devoured by insects, is 

 culpably faithless to his dependents and his duty. Yet how list- 

 lessly, thoughtlessly, hopelessly, do we see farmers stand by 

 while their crops are destroyed by worms, birds, or weevil, with- 

 out seeming to know that they have anything to do in the prem- 

 ises 1 No Turkish fatalism is blinder or blanker than theirs. It 

 is hardly yet six weeks since I saw whole counties of my own 

 State covered and devastated by grasshoppers, who stripped the 

 dry uplands of every blade of grass, almost every green leaf, 

 cutting the green oats from their stalks, the fruit from the trees, 

 devouring corn in the ear, making the cleared land a desert, and 

 pushing the cattle to the very verge of starvation. Yet there 

 stood the farmers, gazing gloomily from day to day at the de- 

 struction of their cherished hopes of a harvest and the utter deso- 

 lation of the whole country, yet not one asking of another, " What 

 shall we do to arrest this sweeping ravage ? How shall we most 

 readily, cheaply and surely clear our lands of these vermin f 

 I do not pretend to know what the proper remedy was or is ; 

 but this I do know, that, had / been one of these farmers, I 

 would have found a remedy or bankrupted myself in the search. 

 I should have first interrogated the best authorities on Agriculture 



