94 3 ENTOMOLOGY. 
ee 
obloquy: and I hazard nothing in the statement that not even 
her sister science, botany, may boast of a literature more exten- 
sive or more worthy; whether judged by its intrinsic merit as 
pabulum for the philosopher, as a storehouse of facts for the practical 
man, or as aconscientious and accurate presentation of the pure and 
unalloyed truths of nature. I am aware that, among those who have 
never cpened the pages of her vast treasure-book, there is yet a pre- 
vailing belief that insects are little contemptible things unworthy 
any special attention on our part; but if it does not detract from 
our idea of the majesty of a Creator to have produced myriads upon 
myriads of these tiny beings so perfect in their many parts that 
Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like the very meanest of 
them, it should not, surely, derogate from man’s dignity to study 
them in all their infinitesimal perfection. Nothing is great or 
small but by comparison. The earth is a mere mustard seed 
compared to the sun, and the sun viewed in comparison with the 
host of starry suns scattered through infinite space, sinks into 
complete insignificance. Now what should we say of a school-boy 
who objected to study geography, because the earth was too small 
a body to be worthy his attention ? 
In common with all the other sciences, Entomology, viewed 
solely as an educator, fertilizes the human mind by adding to its store 
of knowledge ; and has few, if any, equals as a means of developing 
the observing faculties of the young. The life-habits of insects— 
their wonderful metamorphoses, their instructive industries—fur- 
nish ample food for reflection and for our natural love of the 
curious and marvelous; and it is surprising that the fact has not 
been more fully recognized in our educational systems. Botany 
has long since had her place in our schools, and her importance as 
a means of mental training is not ignored. Yet lessons in animal 
life—the histories of living, sentient, active creatures—can cer- 
tainly be made as instructive and entertaining as lessons in 
vegetative plant-life—and should receive as much, or more atten- 
i 
7 ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE OF ENTOMOLOGY. 
Man receives some direct benefits from insects, which fact may 
be well brought home by taking for example the case of a young 
lady dressing for an evening party:—Her card of invitation has 
been written with ink—the principal ingredient in which—if it be 
good ink-—is the gallic acid made from the so-called ‘gall-nut”’ 
produced by a little gall-fly on the leaves of a species of Oak very 
common throughout the Levant. The sealing-wax which fastens 
the envelope enclosing the invitation is made principally of shellac, 
the product ef a species of bark-louse. Her toilet table is, of 
course, illumined with wax tapers, and for these she is indebted 
to the common honey-bee, a naturalized American citizen. If 
she be a fashionable young lady, the very rouge on her cheeks is 
prepared from lac, a secretion of a bark-louse from Hindoostan. 
The silk that enters into various portions of her dress, comes from 
the silk-worm, artificially propagated in many parts of Europe and 
Asia, and now beginning to attract renewed attention in some parts 
of our own country. Her dress is probably dyed with cochineal, 
an extract from the dead bodies of another species of bark-louse, 
Finally, if the 
young lady contracts some inflammatory cold, the chances are that 
artificially propagated on cacti in Mexico. 
her physician will apply to her person a blister prepared from 
cantharides, the dried and powdered bodies of a Spanish blister- 
beetle, of which we annually import large quantities at great 
expense, because our pharmaceutists are ignorant of the fact that 
we have some half-dozen indigenous species belonging to the same 
family, the vesicatory properties of which are every bit as good, 
and which are so common during certain years, that they are among 
the most serious enemies of that valuable esculent, the Potato. 
Indirectly, insects are also of essential service to us; some acting 
as guards over the vegetable world by destroying the herbivorous 
species of their own Class, some as scavengers in clearing away 
decaying animal and vegetable matter; while others perform a 
most important part in the fertilization of plants. 
But the direct or indirect benefits we derive from insects are 
trivial compared with the damage they do us, as destroyers of our 
crops. It is, therefore, in 
THE RELATION OF INSECTS TO AGRICULTURE, 
That they more particularly interest us. In his essay on ‘* What I 
Know of Farming,’’ Horace GREELEY says : — 
‘If I were to estimate the average loss per annum to the farmers 
of this country from insects at $100,000,000, I should doubtless be 
far below the mark. The loss of fruit alone by the devastations of 
insects, within a radius of fifty miles of this city, must amount in 
value to millions. In my neighborhood the peach once flourished, 
but flourishes no more, and cherries have been all but annihilated. 
Apples were till lately our most profitable and perhaps our most 
important product; but the worms have taken half our average crop 
and sadly damage what they do not utterly destroy. Plums we 
have ceased to grow or expect ; our pears are generally stung and 
often blighted; even the currant has at last its fruit-destroying 
worm. We must fight our paltry adversaries more efficiently, or 
allow them to drive us wholly from the field.’’ 
The above estimate, great as it seems, is, I believe, far below the 
mark; and, indeed, it is only when we begin to make careful com- 
putation of the average annual loss to this country by insect dep- 
redations, and express the sum in round numbers that we can 
form any intelligent conception of its magnitude. The State of 
Missouri, alone, loses annually from fifteen to twenty million dol- 
lars, at the very least, and the loss to the Southern cotton-growing 
States the present year within a single fortnight, by a single insect 
(the Cotton-worm, Anomis xylina,) was lately estimated at twenty 
millions, There is not the least doubt but that the damage in- 
flicted by insects on the farmers of the United States exceeds ten- 
fold the united damages of all other animals put together. It is 
rarely if ever that entire crops are destroyed by birds, rats or squir- 
rels ; yet we all know that a single minute insect—the Chinch Bug 
— often so injures a crop of wheat that it is not worth the cutting. 
HOW TO COUNTERWORK NOXIOUS INSECTS. 
Since, then, we sustain such immense loss from insect injuries, 
the question presents itself, how can we avert wholly, or in part, 
that great evil, and in what way are we to be benefited by the 
services of one who makes it his especial duty to investigate the 
subject? There are two grand methods of counter-working a 
particular noxious insect. 1st, Prevention, i. e., guarding against 
