694 [Assembly 
much as names by which to designate them, while of the remain¬ 
der, comparatively few have been traced through the several 
changes which they undergo, so as to acquaint us with their 
entire history; yet in an economical point of view, no branch of 
our natural history surpasses this in importance. Few are aware 
of the amount of damage annually occasioned by insects. Not a 
fruit or forest tree can be found within the borders of our State 
that is not overrun, and more or less injured by one or another 
class of these creatures; nor does there vegetate in our soil an 
herb, on which at some period of its growth they do not commit 
depredations. 
The governments of other countries have been liberal in their 
expenditures for investigations in this most intricate and obscure 
department of science, and in many of these countries bounties to 
a large amount are paid from the public treasury, for the destruc¬ 
tion of the more pernicious species. In the south of France, at 
particular seasons, the population of whole villages is occupied in 
collecting and destroying the eggs and young of grasshoppers and 
other noxious insects, to obtain the bounty paid therefor by 
government. 
Thus there were paid from the public treasury at Marseilles, in 
one year 5,54-2 francs, in another 6,200; and in some years as 
many as 25,000 francs have thus been paid for that purpose, and 
similar sums in other provinces. Now, where our knowledge of 
these creatures is so limited and imperfect, and where no atten¬ 
tion is given to their destruction, we are sustaining an annual 
loss and injury far greater than those of foreign countries. Yet 
in France, it is the common estimate that property to the value 
of twenty millions of dollars is annually destroyed by insects, 
while in the State of New-York alone, we have full proof that a 
single insect (the wheat midge) last summer destroyed property 
to an amount exceeding fifteen millions of dollars, and could the 
loss we sustain by the Hessian fly, the joint worm, (an insect 
which has lately appeared) and innumerable other noxious species 
within our borders, be ascertained and added to this, the aggre¬ 
gate amount would be truly appalling. 
