254 HOUSE, GARDEN, AND FIELD 



nobody can at present even guess how many of these 

 there may be. 



INSECTS AND MAN. 



The surface of the earth is a battle-field, on which a 

 vast number of animals strive with one another for space 

 and room. The advantage in this contest is by no means 

 necessarily with the powerful. Numbers and artfulness 

 have often prevailed over strength. It would seem as if 

 the struggle was bound to remain for ever undecided, 

 were it not that in the last ages an agent of mighty power 

 has appeared before whom many of the combatants seem 

 unable to make an effective stand. The great beasts 

 of prey die out where he establishes himself ; animals 

 with hoofs and horns are enslaved by him, and made to 

 do his work. All creatures that interfere with his purposes 

 find in him a steady enemy, whose plans are handed down 

 from generation to generation. This enemy is Man, who 

 alone among animals can record his experience, and take 

 counsel with kindred whom he has never seen. There 

 is no chance for the biggest and fiercest animals in rivalry 

 with man ; it remains to be seen whether or not the most 

 insignificant of animals can hold out against him by reason 

 of their numbers and the ease with which they escape 

 notice. 



Somebody has lately been so bold as to propose that 

 mankind should undertake the extermination of the whole 

 race of insects, sparing, I suppose, the honey-bee and 

 perhaps one or two others of undeniable utility. Whether 

 it is desirable to extirpate the insects or not, I will not 

 consider just now, but will content myself with remarking 

 that their prodigious numbers, their powers of flight, and 

 their wide distribution make the task of extermination 

 infinitely more difficult than any enterprise which man 

 has hitherto accomplished, or even undertaken. 



I have sometimes thought that in an isolated country 

 like Britain it might be possible to exterminate a particular 

 farm-insect, at any rate for a time, by prohibiting for a 



