CHAPTER LXI 



THE FAEMEB'S HELPERS 



' T3 Y 'helpers' I here mean those animals and birds 

 XJ that come to our aid, though not subject to 

 our care and protection, and make war on the in- 

 sects and divers other devourers that would soon get 

 complete control of our crops if we were left to our 

 own resources for preventing their excessive multi- 

 plication. What could man do against those vora- 

 cious hordes that annually propagate their kind at 

 a rate defying calculation? Would he have the pa- 

 tience, the skill, the keenness of eyesight necessary 

 for effective warfare upon the smallest of these ma- 

 rauders when the June-bug, despite its size, mocks 

 at our utmost efforts to exterminate it? Would he 

 undertake to examine all his fields, a clod at a time, 

 to inspect his grain, ear by ear, to scrutinize his fruit 

 trees, one leaf after another? For so prodigious a 

 task the combined efforts of the whole human race 

 would not suffice. The devouring hosts would eat 

 us up, my friends, if we had no helpers to come to 

 our rescue, helpers endowed with a patience that 

 nothing can weary, an adroitness that baffles all 

 wiles, a vigilance from which there is no escape. To 

 lie in wait for the enemy, to seek him in his remotest 

 retreats, to pursue him without pause or rest, and 



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