62 WOBCESTEE COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1880. 



most faith in tlie efficacy of human intervention. Now, — when from 

 all sides we are invited to the war upon insects ; and Nature is ran- 

 sacked to supply us with some means of defense frofn their ravages; I 

 proclaim the impotence of man. And I say that, — happen what may, 

 and generally speaking, — it is indisputable that man has not, from an 

 Agricultural point of view, any effectual means of preventing the inva- 

 sion of Insects, or of compelling them to fly — never to return." 



With more, characterized by the same French charm and 

 felicity of expression, tliat might be profitably repeated here, did 

 time allow. You observe what stress is laid upon the fact, obvi- 

 ous to all save those who having eyes see not, — that Birds are 

 omnivorous and not at all discriminating in their appetite. This 

 position, so often assumed in these Reports, has been thoroughly 

 demonstrated by Professor Forbes of Illinois, upon the pages of 

 the American Entomologist : — 



" Investigating the contents of Twenty-eight (2H) Brown Thrushes 

 ( Turdus rvfiis), Thirty-seven (37) Cat Birds (Turdxis fellvox), and 

 of Forty-one (41) Kobins (Turdus 'migratorius), he found their food 

 largely made up of insects. He carelully exannned all those insects, 

 and, knowing their names, character, and habits, discovered the hith- 

 erto unsuspected* fact that the family of Thrushes is inordinately 

 destructive to beneficial m^eoX^. Of 150 Thrushes examined, 46 per 

 cent, had taken those useful insects known as Carahidae ; while of 

 194 birds of other families only 5 per cent, had eaten them," &c. &c. 



We may be powerless against Insects, as the French savant 

 declares : but the sense of impotence, as concerns them, should 

 not make us so idiotic as to foster, hy legislation, the health and 

 long life of our natural foes. Beneficial insects have neither 

 bloom, nor song, to commend them; yet, throughout tlieir insig- 

 nificant and outlawed existence, they cease not to toil and spin in 

 our behalf. 



In a reproof addressed, by one of the Minor Prophets to the 

 People and Priests of Israel, for their manifold iniquities, he 

 chiefly and bitterly denounces them for that " they have de- 

 voured their judges." In this Nineteenth Century, they are 

 called Committee-Men ; but, equally as in the ages before Christ, 

 are those who devour them "hot as an oven." Speaking for the 

 Floral Committee of this Society, it may not be impertinent to 



* The statement is too broad. The "fact" had often been asserted, was 

 always suspected, and, by Professor Forbes is at last demonstrated beyond 

 peradventure. E. W. L. 



