20 



assured that the Colorado bug is steadily and surely 

 making its way eastward, bringing with it ruin and 

 destruction to the potato. 



What purpose these destructive insects serve in the 

 great plan of the universe is a puzzling mystery which 

 may well be classed with the other great questions 

 of " good and ill foreknowledge and free fiite/' which 

 puzzled the fallen angels. 



It is o'ratifvinjr to know that the same hand that 



O ^ CD 



sends the bane sends the antidote. These insects not on- 

 ly have numberless enemies among the birds and other 

 insects, but they all have their parasites by whose ener- 

 gies they are swept away, when they become too numer- 

 ous for endurance. 



We must regard these troublesome enemies with the 

 philosophy thus expressed by a modern writer : 



'■ Great ileas have little ileas upon their backs to bite 'em, 



And little lieas have lesser Heas and so ad infinitum ; 



And the great fleas themselves in turn have greater flt'as to go on, 



While these again have greater still and greater still and so on." 



Naturalists could render no greater service to the com- 

 munity than to investigate the habits of parasitic animals 

 for the purpose of ascertaining whether it is possible to 

 introduce or increase tliem by artificial means, so as to 

 aid the farmer in his warfare against the insects that prey 

 upon his crops. 



Tlie good farmer will be a careful observer of the 

 weather. Not only during harvest, but at all seasons 

 the farm work for the day often depends upon the 

 weather probabilities. We must remember that storms 

 do not come by chance, but in obedience to certain at- 

 mospheric laws, which are yet imperfectly understood, 

 but which manifest themselves in certain well-known 



