LETTER VI. 



INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS: 



INDIRECT INJURIES CONTINUED. 



HAVING endeavoured to giveyousome ideaof themode 

 in which insects establish and maintain their empire over 

 man and his train of dependent animals, I shall next call 

 your attention to his living vegetable possessions, whether 

 the produce of the forest, the field, or the garden; whether 

 necessary to him for his support, convenient for his use, 

 or ministering to his comfort, pleasure and delight : — 

 and here you will find these little creatures as busily en- 

 gaged in the work of mischief as ever, destroying what 

 is necessary, deranging what is convenient, marring what 

 is beautiful, and turning what should give us pleasure into 

 an object of disgust. 



Let us begin with the produce of our fields. — Bread is 

 called " the staff of life:" yet should divine Providence in 

 anger be pleased to give the rein to the various insects 

 which, in the different stages of its growth, attack the 

 plant producing it, how quickly would this staff be bro- 

 ken ! From the moment that wheat begins to emerge from 

 the soil, to the time when it is carried into the barn, it is 

 exposed to their ravages. One of its earliest assailants in 

 this country is that of which Mr. Walford has given an 



