THE PESTS OF THE FARM. 



ANY scientific mode of arrangement, in the treatment of euch a 

 very diversified subject as the present, would only prove a source 

 of unnecessary toil and mystification to the practical reader. The 

 principal living pests from whose annoyances farmers, or those 

 holding land, whether as farmers or mere country gentlemen, are 

 likely to suffer, are easily divisible into three great sections viz., 

 quadrupeds, birds, and insects. I adopt the latter term in its old 

 and widest sense viz., as applying not merely to insecta, but to 

 worms, slugs, and other land molluscs infesting plants and fruits. 

 Under the first head, of Quadrupeds, will be the WILD CAT, the 

 SKUNK, the WEASEL, the OTTER, the HEDGEHOG or PORCUPINE, the 

 MOLE, the RABBIT, the HARE, the RAT, the MOUSE, the Fox, the 

 OPOSSUM, the MINK, the MUSKRAT, the WOLF, and the RACCOON. 

 Under the second head will be Predacious Birds, such as the Eagle, 

 the Raven, the Owl, the Kite, the Hawk, &c., whose predatory habits 

 tend usually towards the same quarter, and which may to a great 

 extent be destroyed, or their ravages guarded against, in the same 

 manner and by the same means. Under the third, will be Insects, 

 properly so called, as Beetles, Weevils, Wasps, Flies, the WIREWORM, 

 the TURNIP-FLY, the BEETLE, the various CATERPILLARS, and other 

 ravenous larva ; nor shall I omit some account of the aphis vastator, 

 to whose devastation many persons attribute the loss of the potato ; 

 and, observe, I shall not confine my observations to such creatures 

 as / know to be pests, but shall further describe such as are only 

 suspected, and also those which are calumniated, which / know not 

 to be pests, many of which, indeed, are on the contrary serviceable, 

 and to be regarded as friends rather than as foes, to be preserved 

 rather than extirpated. 



