378 



MONTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



Ij" compensate for their want of coi-poreal 

 inagnilude. The amount of the species of 

 plants, and all the classes of other animals ta- 

 ken together, cannot (according to the latest 

 estimates) equal in amount the species of in- 

 sects, as we reckon about 300,000 species. 

 If we consider the fecundity of many kinds 

 of insects, which sometimes produce an off- 

 spring of several hundreds, or even thousands 

 (the females of the tennites, or white ant, 

 producing an offspring of 40,000,) and also 

 that some kinds produce several generations 

 in one yeai-, it appears evident that the num- 

 ber of insects can hardly be estimated. As 

 a proof of this, which perhaps to many may 

 appear too bold an assertion, we need only 

 mention the enormous swarms of locusts, 

 which are sometimes so numerous, and in 

 such masses, tiiat they darken the sun, and 

 when they alight, they fi-equently cover seve- 

 ral square miles of land ; also the Rhagio 

 C'oliimhaschensis, Fab., a minute dipterous 

 insect, but a fearful plague in many parts of 

 the bannat of Temeswar, and which when 

 congregated in the air resemble dark clouds, 

 although each individual is not more than two 

 lines long. Who could even reckon the myr- 

 iads of gnats or midges, which in many 

 years, like pillars of smoke, ascend in the 

 air ? Or who could succeed in ascertaining 

 the number of inhabitants in an ant-hill ? All 

 these myriads derive their nourishment either 

 from plants or animals, in their living state, 

 or from their remains when dead ; and there 

 are even some to which Man himself must pay 

 ti'ibute with his blood. 



" From such considerations are we not," 

 says Schrank, the worthy Bavarian natural- 

 ist, " alarmed for our forests, gardens, and 

 groves? Do not these innumerable millions 

 of insects which incessantly labor at their de- 

 sti'uction, confiise our understanding when 

 we begin to i-eckon them, and terrify our im- 

 agination which magnifies them ? And can 

 I be believed if I assert that I discover be- 

 neficence in such unspeakable desti-uction, 

 beauty in these devastations, wisdom in this 

 disorder, and life in this manifold death? 

 Nevertheless it is so. Whatever many may 

 say of Nature growing old, the naturalist finds 

 her always young and beautiftd, always esti- 

 mable, just as she came fi-om the hand of her 

 Creator, and as she indeed every moment is- 

 sues afresh from the hand of the Almighty 

 Being. In His hand the youth of Nalm-e is 

 contiiuially renewed ; and under His all-rul- 

 ing Providence, all the millions of apparently 

 destructive beings only labor in preserving 

 her existence and embellishment. 



" Let us here contemplate the whole econ- 

 omy of Nature at a general glance, in respect 

 to forests only ; and let us view her as she is, 

 without the aid of Man, who often disturbs 

 her general aiTangement. 



" Insects that feed on wood are not injuri- 

 ous to ligneous plants, except from their dis- 

 proportionate immbers ; and these numbers, 

 when left to bountiful Nature herseli", are 

 (738) 



never disproportionate : two assertions which, 

 however paradoxical they may seem at first 

 sight, are yet admitted by the naturalist, who 

 has proofs of them daily before his eyes, as 

 pmciples, but which I must here demon- 

 strate, because many persons who are engag- 

 ed in studying the works of Nature, either as 

 professional men, or as amateurs, are not nat- 

 uralists. 



" In a work on the Fruitfulness of Plants 

 [also written by Schrank] it is stated that an 

 elm twelve years old in one sinple year pro- 

 duces 164. ."300 seeds ; which in the course of 

 another twelve years, (if no accident happen- 

 ed) would become as large trees as their pa- 

 rent : and from this calculation it appears that 

 a succession of much more than 26,960 mil- 

 lions of trees might be obtained fiom one. 



"Tliis calculation is made from the fruit 

 only, and not from the blossoms of any ti-ee, 

 and is, therefore, applicable to all other trees. 

 A single sjjccies of trees, such as we have 

 them in one of our provinces the most scanti- 

 ly clothed with trees, would during the life 

 of man cover a large extent of land with a 

 thick forest, and after a few centuries it would 

 appear as if the whole world had been made 

 for it only — as if it alone would cover the 

 whole extent of dry land. 



" The great multiplicity of organized beings 

 which makes the world as it is at present so 

 beautiful, ^vould then have disappeared ; sym- 

 metry, which gives a charm to this multijilic- 

 ity, and which delights the contemplator of 

 Nature in exalted enthusiasm, would have 

 vanished ; soon would all animal life in the 

 habitable world be destroyed ; a great num- 

 ber of birds which live only on insects which 

 eat wood, we have ah-eady annihilated, by 

 our presuppositon that these, insects do not 

 exist; the thick, impeneti-abls forest, which 

 the kind of tree mentioned would cover, 

 would soon suppliant eveiy blade of grass, 

 kill every insect intended to live upon it, ev- 

 ery bird to wliich tliese insects were intend- 

 ed as food, destroy all animals living upon 

 grass that could not reach the tops of the 

 high forest trees, and finally kill every beast 

 of prey, which could not at last even find a 

 carcass to satisfy its ravenous hunger. 



" This is but too faint a picture of our earth, 

 which without the insects that five on wood, 

 would be but too true. A wise Hand has 

 scattered them everywhere, and given to 

 each kind its particular instinct, its peculiar 

 economy, and great fecundity. With them, 

 ordei'and life are restored to universal Nature. 

 On their side, pursued by powerful, or weak, 

 but not less numerous enemies, they unceas- 

 uigly follow the given commands of Provi- 

 dence. 



" The proportion which exists between 

 their increase and the occasion for it, and 

 their enemies, secures Nature from the devas- 

 tations which they would occasion, and re- 

 stores all to the most admhable equality. 



" A forest of firs more than a hundred 

 years oUl, has already nearly .terminated its 



