SOME NOXIOUS INSECTS. 

 CHAPTER III. 



OUR BENEFACTORS. 



IN the uncivilised days of England the carrot, the tur- 

 nip, the asparagus, the cabbage, the celery, and other 

 garden plants, were mere weeds, and, in consequence, the 

 insects which fed upon them were unheeded by man. 

 Our semi-savage predecessors could find no fault with 

 the cabbage caterpillars, with the turnip grub, the celery 

 fly, or the asparagus beetle, simply because the plants on 

 which they fed had not been brought into cultivation, 

 and their destroyers could not be ranked among noxious 

 insects. 



So at the present day we do not cultivate the stinging 

 nettle, ranking it among the weeds, and, in consequence, 

 we rather look upon the insects which feed upon it as 



