The evening Argus. [volume] (Rock Island, Ill.) 1861-1871, 1868-03-31

Wade, Chandler, Yatss and Oglesby, and
would make q good candidate for q party
that claim to have in its organization all the
pious and pure Of the land.
The speaker proclaimed the democratic
party dead. If he should succeed in getting
the nomination for governor, he will find
the democratic party a pretty lively corpse.
| -Springfe,d Register.
Concerning Bugs.
The Illinois Horticultural Society has pub
lished the "First Animal Report on the
Noxious Insects of Illinois. by Benz. u.
Walsh, M. A., Acting State Entomoiogist."
Il is work of considerable interest to the
general reader, and of much value, AZ well
as interest. 70 the horticuiturist.
II is devoted to bugs. The author intro
duces the subject Of bugs by proposing to
explain "what business" he has to assume
the title of Acting State Entonnologist. His
explanation shows, conclusively, that he has
no business to assume that title. There is
no such officer in Illinois as State Entomolo-
gist, and never has been. The legislature,
in the closing hours of its last session, passed
an act authorizing the governor with the
approval of the senate) to appoint such an
officer. The governor nominated Mr.. Walsh,
but the senate dissolved without acting on
the nomination. This is all the business
Mr.. Walsh has to assumes the title of Acting
State Entomologist.
The assumption of that title discloses an
innocent weakness on the part Of Mr.. Walsh,
which appears somewhat prominently in all
his disquisitions on bugs. Egotism may be
pardonable in a man whose soul is absorbed
in scientific research. On this ground one
may pardon the somewhat too prominent
egotism of Mr. Walsh, and trust that it will
not be found an objection to his con6rma-
ton in the office Of State Entomologist next
winter.
More Objectionable to practical men-itis
only the practical in horticulture that pays
is that enthusiasm which too often entices
the man of science from the domain of facts
into a realm of ideal fancies. The chemist,
enamored of his science, is prone to become
the impractical alchemist. The politician,
inspired by fanciful theory of the unity
of the human race, is carried away, in spite
of his own better Judgment, into a region of
impracticable absurdities. Mr.. Walsh is
carried away with bugs. He is bug-en-
thusiast. His imagination endows the most
loathsome caterpillar with all the sentient
faculties and motives ofaction that character
ize reasoning beings. "Insects,n he asserts,
"are not the miserable, thoughtless, careless,
improvident machines that most people
suppose them to be. They look before they
leap. They understand their business
They know, as well as the most skilful me-
chanic, what would be the consequences ola
clumsy movement or an untowed arrange
ment and they govern themselves according
ly." -.--.- .-....-
Upon the theory thus bodily avowed by
the Acting State Entomologist, man is but a
species of twolegged curculio. Some men
are "guest-insects," some are "apple worms y
some .'plum-gougers,' some parasites,
some "cannibals." The Acting Entomolo-
gist probably belongs to species of tiger
beetle Cicindela), an insect that takes wing
very readily, leaving its more practical work
and soaring to enjoy the sunshine. The
principal difference seems to be that Mr..
Walsh's poetical flights on the bug question
partake more of the character of moonshine.
Dismissing that portion of the report
which is the result of Mr. Walsh's vagrant
fancy,-and which, in the light of science, is
often extremely absurd,-th western hor-
ticulturist will find in it much that is of in
trinsic and practical value. The habits,
natural history, &c, Of thirteen different
species of noxious insec,s,-all prevalent in
as the author has tested and found to be of
value are recommended. The last is really
all that Illinois fruit-growers care to know.
They are not fascinated with bugs. To them
1t is matter of supreme indifference wheth
er the female "plnm gouger" does her work
without hope of reward for well -doing and
without fear of punishment for evil-doing,"
or does it in strict observance of the rules
and by Flaws of some insect religions society.
The point is, how to prevent her from doing
that work at all how to destroy both that
another plum-gouger" and her detestable
offspring, which, with a single snap of her
jaws, she might easily Destroy" but which
the highly moral creature virtuously refrains
from doing, in order to set good example
to those proud beings which foolishly fancy
that all this beautiful green world was made
for their exclusive benefit" and (which"
not understanding philosophy, sometimes
indulge the "selfsh desire to escape from
the troubles and responsibilities Of mother
hood" All this sort of thing might have
been omitted by the Acting State Entomol-
ogist from his report, without detriment to
its value. and with benefit to the State Hor-
ticultural Society in the red uction of its ex-
penses for printing.-chicago Times.
QuERY.-Where did Mr.. Walsh get his in
formation that certain medication. when
thrown upon potatoe vines, would destroy
potatoe bugs? Until very recently Mr..
Walsh has stoutly insisted that the only
way to destroy potatoe bugs was to pick
them off by hand and kill them. But since
his late re port. on the subject in which he
proposes another remedy, some little interest
seems to be manifested in this com.
munity to know whether he is really the
discoverer of this remedy or whetherthe
honor of it belongs to another citizen.
From the Oregon Guard.
" n Mech e 1870