UTILITY OF THE MOLE. 259 



committed by him, and obstinately refuse to look 

 at the other side of the picture. Much conflict- 

 ing testimony might certainly be adduced. My 

 own observations, I confess, lead me to believe 

 that in this case the good far preponderates over 

 the evil, while in order to arrive at the truth it 

 may be necessary, as Mr. Bell observes, " to 

 divest our minds as well of the prepossessions of 

 the naturalist, as of the prejudices of the agricul- 

 turist." Let us first hear what an enlightened 

 individual of the latter class says on this subject. 

 I quote from a letter of the Rev. G. Wilkins to 

 whom I have already referred at page 5 which 

 appeared in the ' Essex Herald,' in May 1848, 

 and was addressed " to a farmer who had written 

 to him inquiring how the wire worm had been 

 exterminated in his land," "and contains," ob- 

 serves the editor, " much sound, though we dare 

 say unpalatable, doctrine to the owners of smooth 

 lawns and trim bedded gardens." 



" Some ten years since, when I came to my 

 living, and commenced cultivating the little land 

 I hold, it was, I may say, full of wire worms. 

 Nothing could have been worse, for my crops 

 were in some places ruined by them entirely. 

 What then did I do ? I adopted a plan which I 

 recommended and published in periodicals many 

 years since, viz., encouraging moles and partridges 



