THE JUNE-BUG 245 



dry up as they stand, having no roots left to sustain 

 them. When this formidable worm invades a coun- 

 try, famine would surely follow were it not that 

 traffic facilities make possible the speedy importation 

 of provisions from other lands. We live in a pro- 

 gressive age and, thanks to the means of transport 

 and to the briskness of trade, people do not die of 

 hunger in a province whose fields have been devas- 

 tated by the white grub. They do not die of hunger, 

 but what woe follows in the wake of the devouring 

 larva ! Year in and year out, it destroys millions of 

 francs' worth of crops in France alone. 



"The multitude of these little insects is truly ter- 

 rifying. When they invade a field, the earth, under- 

 mined in all directions, loses its firmness and yields 

 under the pressure of the foot. One year, in the 

 department of the Sarthe, the ravages became so 

 serious that it was necessary to undertake a sys- 

 tematic destruction of the pest. The June-bug was 

 hunted on a large scale, and sixty thousand decaliters 

 were gathered in, each decaliter containing about five 

 thousand insects. Thus the total number taken 

 amounted to three hundred millions. To give you 

 some idea of the immensity of this number I will add 

 that if you should try to count those three hundred 

 million insects, one by one, it would take you more 

 than twenty years, working ten hours a day. 



"In the department of the Lower Seine there was 

 at one time found to be an average of twenty-three 

 larvae of the June-bug to the square meter, or two 

 hundred and thirty thousand devourers to each hec- 



