526 INJURIOUS AND BENEFICIAL INSECTS. 
is to be estimated at least by hundreds of thousands of dollars. 
The amount of waste by the agency of insects is really appalling, 
and even now but slightly appreciated by our farming community. 
We have perhaps little idea how many insects are preying upon 
our crops, our shade and ornamental trees. There are, probably 
within the limits of our country, one-tenth of the number, i. e. 
five thousand, which are either at present engaged in the work 
of injury, or are destined to be, with the growth of civilization, 
which means in this instance the destruction of the natural food 
of these insects and the substitution of a different diet, our 
choicest grains and fruits, in their stead. 
During the last summer the canker-worm was as destructive 
as ever, and it seems to have gained a firm foothold among us. 
It is scarcely creditable that so conspicuous and comparatively 
easily assailed an insect as this does so much annual damage. It 
would seem as if the birds did not feed upon it to much extent. 
We have personally never seen birds feeding upon the canker- 
worm, though Professor Wyman states that doves eat them some- 
imes in large numbers and it is thought that the crow blackbirds 
pick up the caterpillars. As we have stated in a former report 
there are certain kinds of caterpillars that birds do not relish. 
Indeed birds seem to have certain fancies of their own among 
edible insects. Thus the martin will store up in its nest quarts 
of the common striped beetle of the potato, to the exclusion of 
other insects. 
The reporter would be greatly obliged for any facts upon this 
subject communicated by those who may have a chance to observe 
what birds feed on particular kinds of insects and at what season 
and month of the year. 
ur cranberry crop has been grievously ravaged during the year 
past, though the writer has no information to give at present in 
relation to this subject farther than that recorded in the article 
entitled “ New and Little Known Insects,” in the “Report on Agri- 
culture of the State for 1870,” and that given in the author’s 
‘Guide to the Study of Insects,” though he has visited several 
cranberry pastures during the recent autumn. In conclusion, 
_ before offering the accompanying remarks on certain injurious 
and beneficial insects, the reporter would invite the attention of 
agriculturists to those insects that prey on the cranberry crop and 
other injurious insects, and beg them to communicate to him at 
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