20 PRIZE ESSAY : 



form for the raker and three binders to stand in, that they may 

 not have to stoop to their work as they would if standing on 

 the platform. As the machine is in operation, the feet of the 

 men standing in these boxes become buried among the insects 

 and fine chaff which fall into them. The men are so annoyed 

 by these vermin thus covering their feet and crawling up their 

 legs, that they many times stamp to shake off and crush the tor- 

 menting things ; and whether dead or alive, when thus heaped 

 together in masses, such a stink arises from them, as, when 

 wafted by the air it happens to come full in one's face, is the 

 most loathsome and nauseating of any thing that can be 

 imagined. 



22. (a) It is difficult to arrive at accurate conclusions respect- 

 ing the annual cost of maintaining destructive insects. In 

 France, where great efforts are constantly made to diminish the 

 numbers of these terrible foes to the agriculturist and public 

 economy, upwards of four hundred thousand pounds have been 

 paid out of the government chest in one year to armies of men, 

 women and children, for their labours in extirpating these pests. 

 This large outlay occurred during a season in which destructive 

 insects prevailed to an unusual extent, threatening the country 

 with famine. It has been said on very excellent authority, that 

 the damages done by insects in France alone amount on the 

 average to ^50,000,000. This sum, immense as it appears to 

 be, is actually approached in some years in the United States. 

 The damages done by the wheat midge in 1854, exceeded, un- 

 doubtedly, ^16,000,000 throughout the Union. When to the 

 injuries committed by the terrible pest just named, those of the 

 chinch bug, Hessian fly, wire worm, and the hosts of insects 

 preying upon fruit trees are added, ^30,000,000 would not cover 

 the cost of their maintenance in that year. The quantity of 

 human food annually consumed by insects in France, is equal to 



