596 
ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
so common has this insect become, that it is scarcely possible for us now 
to grow a crop of plums in any part of our State. 
Why is it—the devout mind is inclined to ask—why is it, that Providence 
has inflicted upon us such numbers of these insect pests ? But, when we 
come to take an enlarged, a philosophical view of this subjeet, we see 
that it is only incidentally that these creatures become detrimental to man, 
in subserving a most important work in the economy of nature. Their 
true office is succinctly stated by Linnaeus, who styles insects—the dili¬ 
gent and faithful servants of nature—perpetually engaged in destroying 
all that is dead, and checking the increase of all that is living in the 
vegetable world. When we look at the work which they perform, we at 
once perceive its importance. Let us suppose a single one of our forest 
trees to grow and propagate itself without any check from its insect depre¬ 
dators. Schrank, an eminent German naturalist, in his work on the Fruit¬ 
fulness of Plants, states that an elm, when twelve years old, produces 
164,500 seeds in a single year. Now if none of these seeds were destroyed 
and none of the young trees which sprout from them, in the course of 12 
years we shall have this number of trees, (164,500) of the same size with 
the parent, and almost two millions of smaller ones from the seeds of the 
intervening years. And each tree of this vast number becoming equally 
prolific, we sec how speedily the whole earth would be monopolized by 
them. Incredible as it would at first thought appear, it requires but a 
few moment’s calculation to show, that a person who in his youth saw but 
one single tree of this kind in our world, before old age came upon him, 
would see the progeny of this tree so vastly, so infinitely multiplied, that 
every rod of earth upon our globe would be occupied by them. And we 
thus see that we have need of every one of the insects which prey upon 
the elm, to repress its vigorous growth, to destroy its seeds, and to cut 
down the young trees which sprout from those seeds. None of them can 
be spared. If only a single one of the many kinds of insects which prey 
upon it were struck out of existence, we might well fear this tree would 
thrive and usurp such a place as would disturb the balance and mar the 
harmony which now exists in the domain of nature. We thus see that 
should a single minute insect of the vast multitude which we have, become 
extinct and disappear from our world—this one link being broken might 
produce a commotion in the whole length of the chain, and convulse the 
laws which regulate the natural world. 
We at this time have in some parts of our country, an example of the 
manner in which a plant will thrive and extend itself when released from 
its insect enemies—a worthless weed which is rapidly overspreading whole 
fields, crowding out every blade of grass and every other plant. I refer to 
the Antirrhinum or Linaria vulgaris of botanists, known by the different 
names of snap-dragon, butter-and-eggs, toad’s flax, &c. We have received 
this weed from Europe, and several insects I see are specified by European 
•The Calophasia Linaria, which wholly consumes the leaves from the stalks, tho Cli- 
siocampa geographica, Cleophna Antirrliini, Eupithecia Linariata and pulchellata, Core- 
mia ferrugata, eto. 
