OF THE FARM AI^D GAKDEK. 



41 



employing years in acquiring the necessary skill, the 

 mechanic that performs this delicate operation with un- 

 erring precision, is actually not yet born into this sublu- 

 nary world! 



Hitherto it had been generally supposed by entomolo- 

 gists that the Harlequin Oabbage-bug was confined to the 

 most southerly of the Southern States, such as Texas and 

 Louisiana; and it has consequently been called by some 

 ^^the Texan Cabbage-bug," instead of translating the 

 scientific name and calling it, as we haye done, '^the 

 Harlequin Oabbaga-bug." In September, 1867, however, 

 we received numerous living specimens from Dr. Sum- 

 merer, of Salisbury, in N^orth Carolina; and from his ac- 

 count it seems to be as great a pest in the gardens of that 

 State as Dr. Lincecum describes it to be in Texas. 

 Hence the species is most probably to be met with, in 

 particular localities and in particular seasons, throughout 

 the Southern States, at least as far north as Tennessee 

 and Arkansas; and we should not be surprised if a few 

 specimens were eventually to turn up in Southern Illi- 

 nois, and in Southern Missouri. 



It is said that no criminal among the human race is 

 so vile and depraved, that not one single redeeming 

 feature can be discovered in his character. It is just so 

 with this insect. Unlike the great majority of the ex- 

 tensive group {Scutellera Family, Order of Half -winged 

 Bugs) to which it belongs, it has no unsavory bed-buggy 

 smell, but on the contrary exhales a faint odor which is 

 rather pleasant than otherwise. We have already re- 

 ferred to the beauty of its coloring. As offsets, therefore, 

 to its greediness and its thievery, we have, first, the fact 

 of its being agreeable to the nose, and secondly the fact 

 of its being agreeable to the eye. Are there not certain 

 demons in the garb of angels, oocasionally to be met with 

 among the human species, in favor of whom no stronger 

 arguments than the above can possibly be urged? 



