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destriictivo habits. The most important of these have been 

 treated of in the article mentioned above, to which I would 

 again refer the reader. 



Insects. 



The extent to which this class is mischievous on the farm is 

 very great. It has been estimated that, in one season in the 

 New England States, the amount, in the various crops de- 

 stroyed, would reach millions of dollars ; and when we take 

 into consideration the variety of ways in which many of our 

 insects arc injurious, the different trees and plants and fruits 

 which they attack, sometimes destroy, the estimate is not 

 imreasonablc. In fact, every variety of vegetable growth has 

 its insect enemies, sometimes is assailed by a number of species 

 at once, and almost eternal vigilance is necessary for the suc- 

 cessful cultivation of nearly all our crops. Fortunately the 

 Creator has provided numerous assistants for man in the work 

 of protection, and most of the birds, many of the mammals, as 

 we have already found, and whole families of the insects, are 

 continually at war against the noxious ones. 



Did my limits permit I would designate a few of the most 

 valuable carnivorous insects, and show how and to what extent 

 they are beneficial, but with a brief general recommendation 

 for the dragon flies, which are carnivorous, feeding almost 

 entirely upon noxious insects ; for the tiger beetles, (those 

 active beetles which frequent sandy plains and roads, and 

 when forced to take flight alight after passing a short distance 

 and turn to face the intruder,) which destroy great numbers of 

 small lepidoptera and larvaa ; and for the ichneumon flies which 

 lay their eggs in the bodies of lepidopterous and other larvce, 

 the grubs of which when hatched devour the caterpillar that 

 incloses them ; I will pass to the most prominent of our noxious 

 insects. 



Of the species which attack our various fruit-trees, none of 

 late years have proved more destructive than the canker-worm. 

 This worm is the larva of the canker-worm moth, the male 

 only of which species is furnished with wings. The history of 

 this insect is now pretty well known ; but for the information 

 of tb.ose who have had no opportunities of observing its habits 

 I will present the account given by Dr. Harris: — 



" It was formerly supposed that the canker-worm moths came out of the 

 ground only in the spring. It is now known that many of them rise in the 

 autumn and in the early part of winter. In mild and open winters, I have 

 seen them in every month from October to March. They begin to make their 

 appearance after the first hard frosts in the autumn, usually towards the end 

 of October, and they continue to come forth in greater or smaller numbers, 

 according to the mildness or severity of the weather after the frosts have 



