No. 144.1 329 



remedies, some of wliich we have noticed, to destroy or diminish 

 the numbers of insects (for they do not expect, nor can any people 

 think of doing little more than lessen the evil), they have organi- 

 zed in France, in years when the enemy abounded, armies of men, 

 women and children to scour the whole country, fight and destroy 

 him or as many as they could. These elTorts were paid for out 

 of public funds, set apart for the purpose, and distributed by 

 commissioners appointed to decide on the value of the services of 

 each one engaged in the tight. . These were estimated according 

 to the number or weight of eggs and skeletons of Insects produced 

 by each combatant. Women and children are as competent for 

 this work, and perhaps with a little drilling and practice more so 

 than men ; the pay, little as it may be, would rouse them to the 

 contest, which could not be expected to be efiiciently waged, 

 without such a stimulus. 



France has paid in one year, when the enemy was very numer- 

 ous and destructive, more than twenty million of francs towards 

 his extirpation by such means. It is said by the highest authority 

 in France, that the damage done there by insects will amount to 

 more than fifty million of dollars a year, on an average of many 

 years together. Besides, Europe, especially Britain, France, and 

 some other nations, preserve with the greatest care all insect eat- 

 ing wild animals, beasts and birds, by enacting severe penal laws 

 against those who destroy them, and have such laws strictly en- 

 forced. We shall, at some future day, if we do not now, have to 

 adopt all these measures, with others, if we wish to protect ourselves 

 more efficiently against the ravages of insects. Our country has 

 increased immensely in surface and population within a few years, 

 the products of its soil of every kind increased in proportion, and 

 the enemy that preys upon those last has multiplied perhaps a 

 thousand fold, and likely to continue so to do unless vigorously 

 checked. His food is not onl}^ thus increased in quantity, but in 

 delicacy, richness, and variety, and such an increase of numbers 

 and increased consumption of food, often occasion dearth, especi- 

 ally when combined the same season with the damage done by 

 drou£,ht. This has often been the case in ancient and modern 

 times, and quite recently with several nations of Europe^ we 



