I do, for I believe that if vmir fathers and mothers had known as 

 nmcli about bugs as yon may, if you keej) your eyes ojoen, they would 

 he vei'y much richer than they are to-day. 



A miUion dollars seeins like a ^ii-cat deal of money, does it not? A 

 ,<;reat many splendid things could Ije done with that amount. But did 

 you know that the farmers of Indiana hise more than a million of 

 dollars e\ery year because of insect-^? It is because I want you to try 

 to save this vast sum of money that I am trying to interest you lu what 

 are known as hugs. I believe I have said enough to show that bugs ai-e 

 worth studying. 



But did you ever think how wise some insects were? I know of 

 some that build great d(jmes as pei-fect a> our Ijest engineers can de- 

 vise. 'When we think of the size of the insect, they are vastly larger 

 than an3'thing man has ever undertaken. ;\Ian has wood and iron and 

 steel to help him, but these insects have only the earth, and vet their 

 wonderful archer and domes stand ^.trong and true. Sometimes these 

 domes are (iO feel around and 25 feet high and are led into hy a >eries 

 of vaulted lialls and ]iassages that cover rods in every direction. Then 

 some insects are too proud to work, and so ha"\e slaves, who do all 

 their work; in some cases they compel the slaves to chew the food for 

 them and place the prepared nKjrse! in their mouth. To capture these 

 slaves they march out in companies and regiments and brigades, under 

 the command of oflicers. and \\age a genuine war. They talk to each 

 other by means of their "feelers" or antennae, as wise men call them, 

 and >end messages from one ]iart of the army to another or back to 

 the home ncsl. I could tell you many moj'e wonderful things that they 

 do. I>o yon want to know what strange kind of insects know so 

 much? A\'i'll, they are the ants. If you can find an ant nest this sum- 

 mer far enough away from the house not to be a nuisance, do not 

 destroy it, but -rtatch it from day to day, an hour or two hours at a 

 time, and you « ill conic to the conchision that I have, that an ant has 

 more sense than the elephant, big as it is, and that it knows more than 

 even the dog or horse. It is strange, is it not, that you and I have not 

 bci'ii more i]itei-esled in animals that did such wmulerful things? 

 There arc other i]ise<ts beside the ant that are very inlelligent. hut I 

 cannot stop to tell about them here. 



I ^^•||S talking a httle while ago about plant-eating and fiesli-eating 

 insects, but what would you think of insects that eat the hardest wood, 

 or that thrive on carpets and furs? t)[ others that prefer stone, and 

 others that will chew up iron? Yet there are insects that destroy 

 stone pillars, eatijig their "way straight into the hard mass, and there 



