THE MANSE GARDEN. 147 



and have spread their finely picturesque and thriving 

 leaves, a worm, with great prodigality destroying its 

 own stores, cuts the only root the plant has, and it 

 immediately dies. If any get further advanced be- 

 fore they are so attacked, they do not altogether 

 disappear, but maintain a sickly growth, become 

 stringy, and are unfit for use. The progress of the 

 enemy below ground is marked by the withering of 

 the leaves ; but there is little fruit of the discovery 

 save the intimation that the crop will all be destroyed. 

 Such noxious creatures, it would seem, are multi- 

 plied by our cultivation of their appropriate food. 

 The carrot, it is probable, when first introduced, 

 would have few enemies ; but now the rearing of it is 

 generally precarious, and the attempt often abortive. 

 The turnip, too, of so great importance in modern 

 husbandry, is likely to prove, by the disease called 

 " fingers and toes," that the insect causing that dis- 

 ease has spread over the land, in consequence of 

 ' being nourished by the very crops which it is now 

 powerful enough to destroy. If this be the law of 

 insect population, we must draw upon the bounties 

 of nature for a new plant, or shift the old to a remote 

 and altogether new soil. Were the carrot every 

 where abandoned for a term of years, it might per- 

 haps be resumed again with entire success. But as 

 we are not patriots enough, by common consent, to 

 consult for the prosperity of the next age, we must 

 be content to feed the carrot worm, though it take 

 all to itself, or so to moderate its ravages that we 

 may have some share in what remains. No effectual 

 remedy is yet known ; but by various expedients it 

 is still possible to raise good carrots ; and it is a 



