cunton's introductory discoursje. 65 



lutionary war, and sometimes the visits of strange fish, are circumstances 

 deserving of observation. The best mode of multiplying and preserving 

 shell fish would be a subject useful to investigate, and why might we 

 not increase our fresh water fish by importing the carp and tench for 

 propagation, as was formerly done in Great Britain?* 



The Linnsean classes of amphibia, vermes, and insects, have been 

 almost entirely overlooked ; and yet what an immense field for inquiry 

 do they present? There are, it is estimated, twenty thousand species of 

 insects : twenty species feed on the apple tree alone, seventeen of which 

 are phalaenas (millers.) There are seventy-five species of the aphis, 

 (plant louse,) so destructive to vegetation. The ravages of the 

 weavil, hessian fly, canker worm, palmer worm, grass worm, and rose 

 bug, are incalculably injurious. Dr. Barton has intimated that 

 several of our animals supposed to be indigenous may be of Euro- 

 pean origin.f Be this as it may, we know that noxious insects of 

 native origin, migrate from native to naturalized vegetables, as they 

 furnish more abundant or agreeable food. Different preventives 

 and remedies have been prescribed for their depredations, but it still re- 

 mains to discover effectual ones. Silk worms are cultivated with great 

 success in some parts of the country, and excellent silk is made. It has 

 been disputed whether the apis mellifica, or honey bee, has not been 

 imported into America? Jefferson and Barton say it has ; Belknap has 

 taken opposite ground. One would suppose that Cortez had settled 

 this question in his letters to the Emperor Charles V., which describe 

 all the commodities vended in the great market of Mexico, where, he 

 says, " There is sold honey of bees and wax : honey from the stalks of 

 maize which are as sweet as sugar, and honey from a shrub called by the 



* See Note CC. f See Note DD. 



11 



