88 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[June, 



clusively by insei-ts ; and the most effective 

 workers in tliat direction belong to the 

 Hi/menopterous order ; and this order, too, 

 happens to be one that contains the fewest 

 enemies to vegetation and to man in propor- 

 tion to the number of species it contains. 

 The destructions of the "saw flies" and 

 " wood l)orers " of this order are compensated 

 by tlie saccliarine fluid and tlie wax of the 

 domestic "honey-bee," to say nothing about 

 the great number among llieni wliich are 

 parasitic upon the bodies of the noxious mem- 

 bers of their own and correlative orders. 



The relations existing between the whole 

 animal world and plants are too obvious to 

 need special illuslration. It may not be in- 

 appropriate, however, here to introduce a 

 quotation from Darwin, exhibiting in a pecu- 

 liar manner a short section of the great chain 

 of interrelation. Whatever we may think of 

 Darwin's ultimate philosophical deductions, 

 we need not ignore his facts. 



"Many of our orchidaceous plants abso- 

 lutely require the visits of moths to remove 

 their pollen-masses and thus to fertilize them. 

 I have also reason to believe that humble- 

 bees are indispensable to the fertilization 

 of the heartsease (Viola tricolor), for other 

 bees do not visit this flower. From experi- 

 ments which I have lately tried, I have found 

 that the visits of bees are necessary for the 

 fertilization of some kinds of clover ; but 

 humble-bees alone visit tlie red clover. (Tri- 

 folium pratense), as other bees cannot reach 

 the nectar. Hence I have very little doubt 

 that if the whole genus of humble-bees be- 

 came extinct or very rare in England the 

 heartsease and red clover would become very 

 rare, or wholly disappear. The immber of 

 humble-bees in any district depends in a great 

 degree on the number of field-mice, wiiich 

 destroy their combs and nests ; and Mr. H. 

 Newman, who has long attended to the habits 

 of humljle-bees, believes that ' more than 

 two-thirds of them are thus destroyed all over 

 England. ' Now the number of mice is large- 

 ly dependent, as every one knows, on the 

 number of cats, and Mr. Newman says: 

 'Near villages and small towns 1 have found 

 the nests of humble-bees more numerous than 

 elsewhere, which 1 attribute to the number of 

 cats that destroy the mice.' Hence it is quite 

 credible that the presence of a feline animal 

 in large numbers in a district might deter- 

 mine, tlirough tlie intervention first of mice 

 and then of bees, the frequency of certain 

 flowers in that district." 



There is a wonderful parallel which charac- 

 terizes the animal and the vegetable worlds, 

 and this parallel is as manifest in relation to 

 insects as to any other class of animals. The 

 organic world consists of plants and animals, 

 and the line of demarkation between them is 

 not as obvious as appears from a superficial 

 view ; nevertheless the revelations of geology 

 aud rational inference suggest that plants 

 v/ei-e Jlrst created in the category of organic 

 life ; and, by a divine adaptation of means to 

 ends, it is manifest that insects were not 

 necessary to the fertilization of the primitive 

 plants, for these were procreated by countless 

 millions of .sjjore.s, and it "must needs be" 

 that asuflicient number of these would alway.s 

 germinate to afford sufticient aliment to the 

 different herhiceroiis animals as they succes- 

 sively appeared on the face of the earth. In 

 process of time, however, insects were created, 

 and abundant fossil remains of these have 

 been brought to light ; and, as among these 

 are butterflies and bees, we may naturally in- 

 fer thwt prior to their advent the pollenaceous 

 and honey-bearing plants appeared. 



From that remote period down through all 

 the intervening ages to the present time, 

 these two grand divisions of the organic world 

 have progressed side by side in parallel lines 

 of interdependence. Without the advent of 

 animal life, the vegetable kingdom would have 

 become either superaliundant, rank, and pu- 

 trescent, or sterile, abortive, and unfruitful. 

 Without the prior development of the vege- 

 table world, the existence and subsistence of 

 animals would have been a physical impossi- 

 bility. 



The normal balance of these two organic 

 kingdoms was mainly instrumental in ren- 

 dering the physical world a fit place for the 

 habitation of the human family. Man's pro- 

 gress has not been uniformly and uniuterupt- 

 edly onward : it has also been digressive, and 

 sometimes retrogressive, and through repeated 

 vicissitudes the equihbrhim of nature has been 

 disturbed, it not destroyed. Instead of di- 

 minishing, as man advanced in civilization 

 and intelligence, his mental and physical 

 wants increased, and hence he struck out into 

 new channels of improvement, especially in ag- 

 ricultural, mechanical and domestic produc- 

 tions. 



But, in destroying the normal haunts of in- 

 sects and insectivorous animals, and devoting 

 them to the cultivation of improved species of 

 plants, he unconsciously improved, and render- 

 ed more palatable, the aliment upon which most 

 of the noxious insects feed ; and this illus- 

 trates one of the disastrous relations between 

 insects and plants. Fifty years ago, or be- 

 fore the general cultivation of the tobacco 

 plant, as a crop, in Lancaster county, the 

 " Sphinxes " or " Horn-worms," were mainly 

 confined to the common potato vines, and 

 subsequently to the tomato vines, as food- 

 plants. The "Tree-crickets " and "Spectres " 

 fed upon the foliage of trees and shrubbery : 

 the "Cut-worms" and "Boll-worms" fed 

 upon garden-vegetables and the young ears of 

 corn: the " Grass-h.oppers " on the various 

 species of grass: the "Flea-beetles" on the 

 various cucurbitaceous plants, and the " Wire- 

 worms " on cereals. 



But iiow, all these insects and many more, 

 aud also in greatly increased numbers, feed 

 on the tobacco ))lant ; not only because of its 

 greater succulency, but because of its greater 

 abundance and accessibility. 



And just here it may be suggested that 

 these /acis may possess a significance that can 

 only be realized in the undeveloped future. 

 For instance ; more than a score of species be- 

 longing to the insect world have been recog- 

 nized and described as depredators upon the 

 tobacco plant ; and the day may come when 

 the cultivation of this plant will be as precari- 

 ous as that of the plum, which has been so 

 largely damaged by the notorious Gnrculio. 

 Tlxis httle " Turk" enhances the price of 

 plums and prevents the possibility of a glut 

 in the market, illustrating one of the many 

 commercial and domestic relations between 

 insects and plants. 



If these things exist in relation to a fruit so 

 luscious, so healthful and so popular as the 

 plum, what may not come to pass within this 

 century in regard to the tobacco plant. I am not 

 arraigning tobacco, I am merely alluding to 

 possibilities that may be realized in the future 

 in reference to the cultivation of and traffic in 



tobacco. Is there any other industry in Lan- 

 caster county involving more massive build- 

 ings for its accommodation, more capital to 

 carry it forward, more anxiety in its develop- 

 ment aud more solicitude in its results, and 

 yet more barren in real itse, than tobacco ; or 

 one, in case of every other crop failure, that 

 would furnish less support to physical life 

 (than tobacco). But conceding its univer.sal 

 utility, the relations between this plant and 

 the insect world are such that it is doubtful 

 whether its production will ever so far exceed 

 its consumption as to work that ruin which 

 has been so often anticipated. The insect 

 world will more and more furnish that check 

 upon its redundancy, which will culminate in 

 commercial and domestic equilihrio. When 

 its production is involved in those uncertain- 

 ties which now distinguish the plum crop, the 

 farmer will turn his attention to something 

 else that will pay him better. If tobacco is, 

 or ever becomes a bane, it will find its antidote 

 in devouring insecls. Whatever may trans- 

 pire within the next hundred years, we may 

 feel assured that only the least evil will pre- 

 dominate, and that we shall have one of the 

 most striking illustrations of the relations be- 

 tween insects aud plants in maintaining na- 

 ture's equilibrium. 



The mutual relations existing between the 

 vegetable and the insect worlds are likely to 

 continue as long as plants exist and insects 

 subsist upon them. Where one is found, there 

 also will be found the other; and improved 

 cultivation of the former is likely to result in 

 the increased multiplication of the latter. 



All that advancing civilization and human 

 progress can accomplish, is perhaps the su- 

 bordination of the in.sect tribes to human 

 dominion, by discovering and applying anti- 

 dotes against the possible redundance of the 

 destructive species. And to bear out these 

 relations with .additional emphasis, it is now 

 becoming manifest that one of the most effec- 

 tive insecticides, and at the same time the 

 most harmless to human beings, comes from 

 the vegetable kingdom. Prominent among 

 the plants that are destructive to insect life 

 are the different species of Pyrethncm, but 

 especially the roseum and the cineraricefolium. 

 These plants belong to the composite order, 

 and are as simple in their cultivation as com- 

 mon asters. When the flowers of these plants 

 are dried and pulverized, they yield a powder 

 that is fatal to insect life. 



Some insects are indiscriminate visitants 

 or feeders on different species or varieties of 

 plants, but others manifest a decided partiality 

 for a particular species or genus of plants, aud 

 are seldom or never found on any other, and 

 this is the case too, where they are not known 

 to feed on the plant. The Scarlet Tetraopes is 

 uniformly found on the Asclepias, or wild 

 cotton. The beautiful gold and green Chrys- 

 ochus is always found on the "Dogbane," 

 the pretty little ifHi^itria always on the cacal- 

 ias. and the repulsive (Jureus or " squash-bug," 

 always on the scjuash or pumpkin vines. Some 

 predaceous insects and also some spiders hide 

 themselves in the flowers of certain plants, 

 for the purpose of capturing the visiting in- 

 sects, upon which tliey prey. What special 

 benefit these insects may be to the plimts 

 where they are usually found, is not particu- 

 larly manifest, but it seems very clear that 



