PROCEEDINGS OF THE FARMERS' CLUB. 373 



city, you will iSnd thousands of clusters of little eggs. Examine 

 the elms, just under the large branches, where they go off from 

 the main trunks, and in some places you may see the bark almost 

 covered with them ; and, if you let these eggs alone, you will find 

 in midsummer, when you want the shade, these trees will be al- 

 most as leafless as they are now, and the little span-worms will be 

 every where acting out Mahomet's coffin. 



Man was created with dominion; but, if he does not choose to 

 exert it, he should not blame the little insects. Had I a favorite 

 shade tree coated over with these eggs, I would, within a month 

 of this time, do something to prevent those eggs from becoming 

 caterpillars. To tap each cluster with a hammer would do it — 

 to take them off' with a gouge or small adze, or to daub each 

 cluster with paint, or varnish, or tar, would probably save the 

 foliage of that beautiful tree. But nothing of this kind will be 

 done here ; and I shall have the opportunity next summer of 

 seeing lots of these span-worms, and shall come on purpose. 



The insectivorous birds in the country attend to the caterpillar 

 business for us ; but these birds will not stay with you. They do 

 not like the noise, the smoke, and especially the boys of the 

 cities. 



These little span-worms, next summer, when they have eaten 

 all the leaves they want, wall choose others to make their houses 

 of; for they belong to a large class called leaf-curlers; and this 

 leaf-curling process, with some of them, is a very strange one. 

 One much less than your span-worm, that lives on the plum trees, 

 and wraps a leaf around it, so as to resemble a well formed segar, 

 I have watched throughout the process with surpassing interest. 

 I have seen this little speck of a worm take a calm survey of a 

 leaf, then fix her cord on one side, then cross over, and then again 

 and again, and then at different angles; and when some twelve or 

 fifteen of these cords were arranged, she would go backwards to 

 some distance, and with a single cord act upon all these other 

 cords, as if by a combination of leverage, operating with a power 

 utterly above and beyond any thing so minute a creature could 

 accomplish unaided by such a combination of mechanical forces ; 

 and this will be repeated again and again, gaining a little every 

 time, till the whole is completed. Sometimes her strength or her 

 cordage is unequal to the work ; then she will cut away the obstruc- 

 ting part, and try again. In a few hours the leaf will be curled ; 

 the overlapping parts will be neatly sowed together ; the inside 



