112 NATURAL HISTORY 



here, for a single year ? We should hardly be will- 

 ing to give up our portion of these products. 

 There are many others that we could better spare, 

 so far as comfort and ornament are concerned. 

 They constitute an important item among the ne- 

 cessaries and luxuries of life. Now it can hardly be 

 doubted, that study of this department of nature 

 would tend to increase the quantity of these prod- 

 ucts, and in some cases improve their quality, and 

 that others of importance may be discovered. This 

 view, alone, would certainly remove Entomology 

 from the rank of useless and merely curious studies, 

 to one having important bearing upon comfort and 

 health. 



But insects are also destroyers, and this to an 

 alarming degree, and their ravages in our country 

 are yearly increasing. It was some time since found 

 that their injury to the crops, in this country, 

 amounted to more than twenty millions of dollars a 

 year. I think the same report made the remark^ 

 that, if a foreign nation should injure us the twen- 

 tieth part of this sum, for a single year, our army 

 and navy would be called into requisition to de- 



