40 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[ March, 



For The Lancaster Fabmeb. 

 INSECTS AS FOOD.* 



Perhaps it iiiiRht be shocking to your gastro- 

 nomic sensibilities if I were to assert tliat by 

 the time we celebrate the second centennial of 

 anniversary of American independence, the 

 bills of fare at the most frequented restaurants 

 may contain such edibles as ws(cts, dressed in 

 various forms— including the soup, the stew, 

 the roast, the fry, the friccassee, and the pie — 

 and why not V Especially such as feed on 

 fresh, sweet and healthy vegetation. If, then, 

 it should ever become necessary to compro- 

 mise the question between vegetarians and 

 "carnivarians," it seems to nie that insect 

 diet would be the only platform they could 

 possibly meet upon. Again, I ask, why not V 

 Insects, spiders, centipedes, crabs, lobsters, 

 shrimps, prawns, and hundreds of other simi- 

 lar iinimals, all belong to the great class 

 Ariicidata, and, as a class, are infinitely more 

 clean in their feeding habits than the great 

 class Vertebrala, at the head of which stands 

 man, the crown of the animal creation — taken 

 as a whole. Take, fur instance, pigs, chick- 

 ens, ducks, and many of the fishes caught at 

 the outlets of the sewers, along the wharves 

 of all large cities. So, also, we might mention 

 the frog, the snappinLj-turtle (Uliehjdra serpen- 

 tina), which derives its specific name from its 

 resemblance to a serpent, the Iguanns of South 

 America — a large species of lizard — all of 

 which are vertebrates, and the latter belong to 

 the sub-class REPTiLiA.f Now, although 

 these animals are all more or less preferred to 

 other animals that seem more clean, I do not 

 mean to saj- that they are ])Osltive!y unclean ; 

 for, fundamentally considered, the maxim may 

 be true that " there is no such thing as dirt" 

 — that all such substances are merely chemical 

 combinations of miiterial elements having 

 affinities for each other ; and we may also 

 infer that neither plants nor animals will 

 normally absorb or appropriate any other sub- 

 stance than that which is clean and is neces- 

 sary in the formation and development of its 

 physical tissues. It is true that many of the 

 substances which animals feed on impart a 

 peculiar flavor to their secretions or their 

 flesh, ye^ if they ore ill-favored, or even poi- 

 sons, they are, notwithstanding, clean. 



When naturalists first began to classify ani- 

 mals, they included crustaceans, insectans, 

 arachnidans and myriapodans all in the one 

 great class called Articulata, from the in- 

 sected or articidated structure of their bodies; 

 but the simplest and most marked distinction 

 between vertebrates and articulates is, that 

 the former have their skeletons inside and 

 their muscular, adipose and cutaneous tissues 

 outside; whilst the latter have their skeletons 

 outside and their muscular and adipose tissues 

 inside. We may, therefore, rationally infer 

 that there is no great difference in the ele- 

 mentary substances which compose the differ- 

 ent tribes of articulates. There may be a 

 difference in flavor, in texture and nutrition, 

 owing to locality, habit and food ; but in their 

 elementary substances they may be all the 

 same. A dish of boiled shrimps and a dish of 

 boiled grasshoppers, divested of their external 

 members, will present nearly the same appear- 

 ance, and, if seasoned alike, will have nearly 

 the same flavor ; and if people could so far 

 overcome their prejudices as to make a trial, 

 they would nearly taste alike, perhaps. 



In the month of July, 1875, I made a small 

 collection of crustaceans along the shores of 

 Delaware Bay, consisting of crabs, shrimps, 

 prawns, sand-fleas and others, which I im- 

 mersed in alcohol. I also made a collection 

 of grasshoppers (locusts) on the sand flats 

 some distance in from the beach, which I also 

 immersed in alcohol. About twenty-four 

 hours after their immersion, all these animals 

 turned red, just as crabs and lobsters do when 

 they are boiled, and on looking at them I 

 could not but reflect that these animals were 

 all very similar in substance, and tliat the 

 chemical affinities which produced this uni- 



•Read before the Liunwan Society, February 24, 1877, by 

 S. S. RathTon. 

 tTo wUcli alao belong tlis snakes and toads. 



form discoloration musthaveheen substantially 

 the same. Indeed, I have it directly from the 

 mouth of an intimate friend, who on several 

 occasions visited the '"Digger Indians" dur- 

 ing liis residence in California, and who ate 

 of gras.shoppers as they were prepared by these 

 Indians, that they were pleasantly flavored and 

 palatable, even in the simple manner in which 

 these children of nature prepared them — not 

 much unlike shrimps, and quite as agreeable to 

 the sight, and, if properly prepared by civilized 

 hands, might have been »s good as shrimps. 



Many long years ago I had a youthful friend 

 who went as cabiu boy in a trading-vessel to 

 the West India Islands, and when he returned, 

 boy-like, he had many things to say, espec'ially 

 about the fruits and other edibles he found in 

 the markets ; and amongst them was a certain 

 delicacy called (jrugrus, which, compared with 

 other articles, whs expensive, and highly es- 

 teemed, but he did not seem to know exactly 

 whether they were animal or vegetable. Long 

 years afterward, when I began to read works 

 on entomology, I learned that gruyru was the 

 name applied to the larva of the "palm-wee- 

 vil" — Calandra pahnarim — which was eaten 

 by those who could alford to buy them, and 

 that some of the English officers became ex- 

 ceedingly fond of them and esteemed them 

 great luxuries ; and also, that the early ex- 

 l)anding buds of the " cabbage-palm" — Areca 

 oleracea — or rather within the leaves which 

 constitute the summit of the trunk, a solid 

 head lies concealed, which is white, soft and 

 about two feet in length, and this is eaten 

 either raw or cooked. The trunk of this palm 

 is infested by the palm-weevil, as thick as a 

 man's thumb, and three inches long, so that it 

 affords a dish, perhaps more savory than our 

 " beef and cabbage." Now, the practical les- 

 son I desire to suggest by this paper is to this 

 effect. We are often injured in our crops of 

 diflerent kinds by the infestation of hordes of 

 destructive insects, in some instances so nu- 

 merous and so gormandizing in their appetites 

 as to destroy all vegetation, and leave nothing 

 but barrenness and squalid want in their 

 train, and, but for legislative provision and 

 the general dictates of charity, would often 

 result in famine. With the return of almost 

 every summer season our vastly expanded ter- 

 ritory sufiers from the infestations of some 

 one or more kinds of destructive insects ; and 

 these are frequently so sudden in their advent, 

 and so voracious in their demands, that a 

 whole crop may be destroyed before a remedy 

 can be applied, even if a certain lemedy were 

 known ; and this is especially the ca.se with 

 tiie incursions of the " Rocky Mountain lo- 

 cust," or "rascal grasshopper" (Caloplinus 

 spretus), to say nothing about those so destruct- 

 ive to special crops— such, for instance, as the 

 "chinch bugs," the "Colorado potato beetles," 

 the "white earth-grubs," the "curculios," 

 and others, that infest wheat, corn, potatoes, 

 grasses, fruits and other species of vegetation. 



Waiving all speculation as to the oriyin of 

 insects, I think we may safely concede that 

 their existence has been permitted in the 

 universal economy of the Creator, for some 

 use, for the punishment of some abuse, or for 

 the prevention of a greater rejZ. We probably 

 would have a dull, monotonous and pestilential 

 world, it tliere were no insects, and it is very 

 certain that the presence of certain species 

 have always been regarded as a special blessing 

 to mankind ; and even those noxious species, 

 in some countries, have been utilized or con- 

 verted into blessings, which in other countries, 

 have been only esteemed as a curse. Can any 

 one doubt that the versatile and gastro- 

 noniically fertile French would have esteemed 

 a daily shower of locusts during the late "siege 

 of Paris" as less a blessing than did the childreu 

 of Israel the manna in the wilderness ; or that 

 they would not have preferred them to cat- 

 stews, dog-pies, and monkey-hash. Nor 

 would they have been at all singular in this, 

 for these and other insects have been used as 

 food from very ancient times, and are still so 

 used in many parts of the world, and this, too. 

 not from necessity, but from choice, ^-n'l 

 wherever they have been tested by intelligent 



and unprejudiced moderns, the almost univer- 

 sal verdict has been that their taste and flavor 

 have been far preferable to many of the culinary 

 preparations brought to the tables of modern 

 civilization— Limberger cheese, for instance. 

 Many of you, no doubt, have read tliC recent 

 accounts going the rounds of the newspapers, 

 of the banquet of Rocky Mountain locusts, 

 served up under the auspices of Prof. Riley 

 and a cordon of scientific gentlemen in the 

 west, the details of which were very interest- 

 ing and to the point. I am not suggesting a 

 resort to insect food in a time and in a land of 

 plenty, and yet a period in our domestic his- 

 tory may come, when we will make use of 

 them as a matter of choice. But, when they 

 make their advent in vast clouds, and destroy 

 every green thing upon the face of the 

 earth, I think we should so far overcome our 

 prejudices, and compensate ourselves by feed- 

 ing upon them, rather than suffer from starva- 

 tion and pinching want ; and herein may also 

 be found a practical remedy. It is wonderful 

 how the price advances and how scant the 

 supply, when the taste becomes cultivated to 

 the appropriation of certain articles as human 

 food. Less than fifty years ago tomatoes 

 were regarded with disgust or repugnance, if 

 not as poisonous ; but how does the matter 

 stand in regard to this popular edible to-day ? 

 Tomatoes instead of remaining a mere or- 

 nament, became a subject of use, and hence 

 the supply was provided through careful cul- 

 tivation. Not so, however, with some other 

 things. When I was a mere lad, some five 

 and fifty years ago, the ponds, the creeks, the 

 dams, and even tlie rivers, were all pretty 

 well stocked with frogs, and they often made 

 night hideous with their cries of "More rum" 

 and "Blood and nouns," to the great terror 

 of juvenile night walker.s. Nobody then 

 dreamed of using them as food. At length 

 an instructed epicure located in the town, 

 who soon commenced a war upon the frogs, 

 and oflfered to purchase all that were brought 

 to him at a penny a piece — sometimes as low 

 as eight and ten cents per dozen. For awhile 

 his table was well supplied and he and his 

 guests fairly rioted in the luxury. Finally 

 other citizens liegan to relish frogs, and be- 

 fore mail}' years the race became almost ex- 

 tinct. Frogs have very little brain, but what 

 little they have, we boys soon tliscovered, 

 they so far cultivated as to serve the purpose 

 of self-preservation. To capture them, we 

 used a fishing rod with a short piece of line at 

 the end, to which was attached a hook baited 

 with a "bit" of red flannel, and at first they 

 were just stupid enough to greedily snap at 

 the flannel, and allow themselves to be hooked; 

 but they soon found out the nature of the de- 

 coy, and refused to bite at it. They would sit 

 and look at us, and allow us to dangle the de- 

 coy about their heads, or across their mouths, 

 but they would bite no more. Then we tied 

 two or three hooks together — back to back — 

 like a miniature anchor, and hooked them 

 with a quick upward jc^rk, whether they bit 

 or not; but they soon learned to evade this 

 dodge by increasing the distance between us 

 and them. Their advance in scholarship was 

 remarkable. If they were just an inch or two 

 beyond the length of our rods, and we tied a 

 foot or two to the lower end, by the time we 

 were ready to use it, the frogs were just that 

 much farther out in the stream. Then we 

 were compelled to resort to powder and shot, 

 and then too the frogs began to dive under 

 the water at our approach. Claiming your 

 indulgence for this digression, allow me to 

 say, that it was the fashion of eating frogs 

 that occasioned their depletion and almost 

 extinction. A similar use of insects would go 

 very far toward diminishing their numbers, 

 and who knows how soon the time may come 

 when such a use will be made of them, both 

 as a remedy against their incursions, and as 

 an article of commerce. Even if it should be 

 made manifest that insects are a nutritious, 

 healthful and pleasant food, there would ne- 

 cessarily be exceptions, just as there are ex- 

 ceptions among vertebrated animals; for, not 

 many people hanker much after owls, crows 



