The home journal. (Winchester, Tenn.) 1858-188?, 1882-08-09

There are few things more humiliat-
ing to humanity than the sense of mans
helplcssness before very small insects.
Tigers or wolves VIC can eXtermlnale
easily enough, il we really set ourselves
to work at i; rats, mice and weasels
we can keep down somehow. But be-
fore the Colorado beetle or the severn
tcen-ycar locust we are practically al
most reSonrcclesS. And before the
phylloxcra or the hop-ily we can hardly
do more than look ON rcgrctlully with
folded hands. Yet it is some consola-
ton TO reflect that what seems at first
sight useless and purely ornamental
science can help us TO some extent IN
dealing with these inlini,osimal pests.
The only way to conquer them, II way
there be at all, is TO learn their whole
life history; to know them in the egg,
in the larva, in the pupa, in the full
ilcdgcd insect; to crush them in every
stage with whatever weapon the subtle
ties of chemistry or mere ingenious
brute force can suggest; and to do moth
ing which can in any way give them
single extra chance of life, Nothing, IN
fact, could better show the intimate IN
teraction and reaction of knowledge and
practice than this interesting study. On
The one hand, no means can he devised
for getting rid OF injurious insects OK
cent bv a thorough scientific acquaint-
ance with their origin and metamor-
phoscs; on the other hand, no such care
full observations on particular llle-hls-
tories have ever been undertaken, prob
ably, except with the stimulus OF some
practical advantage TO mankind in view.
Thus science and agriculture both gain
by the conjunction Even butterfly
hunting has its special commercial uses
when the butterfly turns out to be the
parent of the gooscbcrry caterpillar, or
TO lay the eggs from which warm sun
will hatch out the destructive cabbage
worm.
MANY Of these observations help to
brmu out the minute iutcraction which
often obtains between different parts
OF the organic balance; 80 that II W.
want to cXtcrminate aparllcular insect
we must sometimes begin by encouras
inc or depressing some seemingly Ill
! connected bird or plant. For example
botanists have long known that we
. seasons are particularly favorable
: charlock, and that after two or tire
4 such seasons the fields, unless diligent
!! wocdcd, are yellow all over with
. bright blossom. But charock is NJ
p pnrontly the native food-plant OF tu
o min ily. from which the insect spread
: EASILY TO the cultivated turnip-a Close
/ Iv allied artificial form; much as I'M
Q Colorado beetle, originally parasitic on
= solanum in the Rocky Mountains, tool
readily to the richer food Of the yer,
similar potato vines, rs soon as extend
ed tillagc began to approach its nature
habitat.
1t is only by such careful observation
. with practical application OF the result
that we can hope to outwit our inse
:; foes; for the more widely any particul
y crop is grown, the more generally G.
~ its natural enemies spread and survlN
+ Even in England, where hill and da
\, copse and hedge break up the filth, a
=, . where small fields of various staples
/ habitually much intermixed. the inse
p, can easily migrate from patch to pa
u, Of their special food plant; while
lr America, where the same crop sol
rs times covers hundreds of square m
l. together on the unfenced and unbrol
plain, locusts and army worms
en- march straight across country,
re after day, in regular battalions. :
in. James Gazette.