INTRODUCTION OF INSECTS. 
105 
the bane long precedes the antidote. Hence, in the United 
States, the ravages of imported insects injurious to cultivated 
crops, not being checked by the counteracting influences which 
nature had provided to limit their devastations in the Old 
"World, are much more destructive than in Europe. It is not 
known that the wheat midge is preyed upon in America by 
any other insect, and in seasons favorable to it, it multiplies to 
a degree which would prove almost fatal to the entire harvest, 
were it not that, in the great territorial extent of the United 
States, there is room for such differences of soil and climate as, 
in a given year, to present in one State all the conditions favor¬ 
able to the increase of a particular insect, while in another, the 
natural influences are hostile to it. The only apparent remedy 
for this evil is, to balance the disproportionate development of 
noxious foreign species by bringing from their native country 
the tribes which prey upon them. This, it seems, has been 
attempted. The United States’ Census Report for 1860, p. 
82, states that the Hew York Agricultural Society “ has intro¬ 
duced into this country from abroad certain parasites which 
Providence has created to counteract the destructive powers 
of some of these depredators.” 
This is, however, not the only purpose for which man has 
designedly introduced foreign forms of insect life. The eggs 
of the silkworm are known to have been brought from the 
farther East to Europe in the sixth century, and new silk spin¬ 
ners which feed on the castor oil bean and the aiiantlius, have 
recently been reared in France and in South America with 
promising success. The cochineal, long regularly bred in 
aboriginal America, has been transplanted to Spain, and both 
the kerrnes insect and the cantliarides have been transferred to 
other climates than their own. The honey bee must be ranked 
next to the silkworm in economical importance.* This useful 
* Between the years 1851 and 1858, both inclusive, the United States 
exported 2,665,857 pounds of beeswax, besides a considerable quantity 
employed in the manufacture of candles for exportation. This is an aver¬ 
age of more than 830,000 pounds per year. The census of 1850 gave tho 
total production of wax and honey for that year at 14,853,128 pounds. In 
