12 PRIZE ESSAY: 



injury we occasionally suffer from the natural causes, because we 

 have not always the opportunity of comparing our losses and 

 troubles with those sustained by our fellow-men in less favoured 

 countries than our own. It is obviously unjust to attribute to 

 climate, geographical position or peculiarities of soil, the general 

 appearance of destructive insects, which we have encouraged and 

 invited by the best means in our power, or perhaps, which it was 

 possible to devise. In the following pages it will be shown that 

 we enjoy in Western Canada a singular immunity from insect 

 depredations, arising no doubt from our insulated position and 

 humid climate. 



9. I do not wish to under-rate the injury sustained by the 

 country at large by the ravages of such insects as the Hessian 

 fly, the wheat fly, and the wire worm, &c. ; but when it can be 

 shown that we possess to a considerable degree the means of 

 arresting the devastating progress of those we have suffered to 

 make their home in our midst, and of so reducing their numbers 

 as to render them comparatively harmless ; it cannot fail to be a 

 matter of congratulation and thankfulness that insect enemies over 

 which we cannot exercise control, neither trouble nor as yet 

 threaten us, although the gradual approach of some of them 

 from the South is a sufficient cause for anxious watchfulness and 

 care. (See paragraphs 14 and 21.) 



10. Our sister colony at the Cape of Good Hope, has been 

 particularly subject to the dreadful scourge of locusts, (Gryllus 

 devastator,) whose invasions are invariably followed by famine 

 in the region they devastate. The inroads of the locust are ap- 

 parently periodical, according to Pringle, about once every fifteen 

 years. In 1808 after having laid waste a considerable portion 

 of the country, they disappeared, and did not return until 1824. 

 They then remained for several years, but in 1830, took their 

 departure. The proper home of the locust is yet a mystery. 



