38 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



nicely balanced and finely adjusted series of organisms by 

 ■which he found himself surrounded. He cut away the forest, 

 "which had clothed much of the country for ages. He intro- 

 duced new plants and new animals. Trees, shrubs and 

 vines, which had surrounded the country homes of the 

 settlers in England or in other lands, were brought here and 

 planted upon the virgin soil of the new country. Insect 

 pests and noxious weeds were undoubtedly, though unin- 

 tentionally, lirought with them in some cases. The intro- 

 duction of new plants and animals, something which nature 

 without man's aid would not have accomplished perhaps in 

 thousands of years, was undertaken and completed by man 

 in a month, to be followed later by serious results, as in 

 the recent cases of the introduction of the English sparrow^, 

 the gypsy moth and the Russian thistle. 



The settlers, while subduing the aborigines and pushing 

 them westward, began to make war on the lower animals. 

 The bears, wolves and panthers, which attacked the flocks 

 and herds, were the first to go. The deer and wild turkey, 

 which attacked the growing crops and were good for food, 

 soon follow'cd. Then, under one pretext or another, the 

 destruction of other native mammals and birds was begun, 

 and is still continued throughout the country even to this 

 day. As the march of civilization continued westward, large 

 areas were devoted to special crops. These broad fields of 

 Indian corn, wheat and other grains, of potatoes, peas and 

 other vegetables, with great vineyards and orchards, oflered 

 an almost unlimited opportunity for the insect enemies of 

 such plants to multiply. Thus the people, while destroying 

 many of the enemies of the native insects, kindly provided 

 those insects with an abundance of succulent food, giving 

 them the very conditions needed to insure that tremendous 

 increase in numbers of which they are capable. Under such 

 conditions, insects like the chinch bug and the Colorado 

 potato beetle were fostered and overran the land. In the 

 primitive condition of the country these insects were un- 

 doubtedly harmless. This policy has been continued, until 

 the United States has become noted as the greatest sufferer 

 from insect pests of any country on the face of the earth. 

 When, under bounty laws, the early colonists in New Eng- 



