INSECTS BEBDS. 131 



formerly covered by the road ; while nearly every 

 berry on either side of it was destroyed by the weevil 

 or midge." 



Now I do not infer from this fact that insect 

 ravages are wholly due to our abuse and exhaustion of 

 the soil. I presume that Wheat and other crops 

 would be devastated by insects if there were no 

 slovenly, niggard, exhausting tillage. But I do 

 firmly hold that at least half our losses by insects 

 would be precluded if our fields were habitually 

 kept in better heart by deep culture, liberal fertili- 

 zing, and a judicious rotation of crops. I heard little 

 of insect ravages in the wheat-fields of Western 

 New- York throughout the first thirty years of this 

 century ; but, when crop after crop of Wheat had 

 been taken from the same fields until they had been 

 well nigh exhausted of their Wheat-forming ele- 

 ments, we began to hear of the desolation wrought 

 by insects ; and those ravages increased in magni- 

 tude until Wheat-culture had to be abandoned for 

 years. I believe that we should have heard little of 

 insects had Wheat been grown on those fields but 

 one year in tliree since their redemption from the 

 primal forest. 



But, whatever might once have been, the Philis- 

 tines are upon us. We are doomed, for at least a 

 generation, to wage a relentless war against insects 

 multiplied beyond reason by the neglect and short- 

 comings of our predecessors. We are in like con- 

 dition with the inhabitants of the British isles a 



