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66 TRANSACTIONS OF THE HINGHAM 
that the presence, in their native forests of only a hundred pairs of 
European jays would have arrested this great loss, would have effect- 
ually aided in the destruction of these insects, in a single season, and 
would have been worth to the proprietors of these forests about a hun- 
dred millions of dollars. 
I have mentioned the cockchafer as one of the most fearful of the 
insect pests of Europe. It is the counterpart of our May-beetle, and 
the grub very closely resembles ours. ‘The European form is, how-) 
ever, worse than that of this country, inasmuch, as the beetles are 
quite as destructive as the larva. The destructiveness of the worms 
are about on a par, only in Europe the large extent of deep culture j 
has tended to their more rapid increase. Yet, we have not much to 
comfort ourselves with in this respect, In our vicinity, these insects 
are evidently, for some cause, on the increase. The summer of 1868 
witnessed a larger flight than was probably ever seen before of the 
parent beetle, our grounds are unusually full of the year-old larvee, and 
it will be fortunate for us, if the summer of 1871, when they will have 
reached their full growth, does not develop even a greater amount of 
injury to grass-lands and crops than was noticed in 1867. 
In Europe, as I have said, the destruction caused by these insects is 
something almost fearful to contemplate. One of these insects, in the 
larva form, it has been ascertained, eats no less than two pounds of 
vegetable root matter during the three years in which it is passing from é 
the egg to the chrysalis. A single statement will give you some idea 
of the enormous quantities in which they are found, and their capacities 
for mischief. The single canton of Berne, in Switzerland, in area not 
half the size of Connecticut, in the years 1864 and 1865, paid out 
259,000 francs, in bounties for the destruction of these insects. There 
were collected and destroyed 83,729 viertels of the beetles and 67,917 
of the worms. A viertel contains about 75,000 beetles and about 
200,000 of the worms, The number of insects thus destroyed in this 
little district, was nearly twenty-two hundred million, enough, with 
only their natural increase to have destroyed the entire crop of that 
canton. The loss actually occasioned in four small districts, among the 
Hartz mountains, by these insects, in 1866, is shown by official returns 
to have been more than a million and a half of thalers, — the entire 
crop of that region. 
I have sought to give you some idea of the enormous losses occasioned 
by these insect pests. I wish now to call your attention to some very 
