284 FIELD, FOREST AND FARM 



a community of wingless plant-lice. The first kind 

 procreate on the spot with a fecundity almost beyond 

 belief; the second take leave of the stationary fam- 

 ily and go out to start new centers of population in 

 various quarters. The first propagate without limit ; 

 the second colonize. 



"To soil the stem of a rose with a coating of lice 

 is not exactly a capital offense; but to lay waste a 

 field of beans, the hope of the farmer, is a far more 

 serious matter. Yet even that is as nothing when 

 compared with other depredations committed by 

 plant-lice. There is a species of these insects that 

 lives underground, subsisting on the roots of the 

 grape-vine. Oh, the hateful creature! Never has 

 agriculture known anything to equal the ravages it 

 commits; no floods or droughts or inclement sea- 

 sons have ever wrought such woes. Its terrible 

 sucker has, up to the present time, caused us losses 

 estimated at the fabulous sum of ten milliard francs. 

 "What a mouthful for a miserable little louse hardly 

 visible to the naked eye ! And to think that the com- 

 bined efforts of nations cannot succeed in extermi- 

 nating this pest! Alas, how feeble is mere force 

 when confronted with the exceedingly minute in- 

 finitely multiplied ! 



"This destroyer of the vine is known as the phyl- 

 loxera, a name strange to our tongue, but losing 

 nothing of its impressiveness in translation. 'Phyl- 

 loxera' means 'witherer of leaves.' The plant-louse 

 thus denominated does indeed cause the foliage of 

 the vine to wither up — not acting on the leaves di- 



