The record-union., 1899-11-27
INTERFERENCE WITH NATURE.


DR.. Blackford in the Scientific
American treats of the danger of in
Producing a new animal or plant into
a region in which it's natural enemy
may be missing. Exactly. The fellow
who brought that brace Of English
sparrows to California in 1860, for in
stance. make a grand mistake for
which posterity owes him an unending
debt of hatred. But Professor Black
ford is right beyond question. Nature
in her own way adjusts matters so as to
equalize forces. When man intervenes
| and interrupts the operation of nat
ural laws he receives punishment in
ample measure. Blackford gives US a
single instance of this in the following
recital:
In 1868, Leopold Trouvelot, noted
scientist, was making some researches
| into the silk-producing organisms, and
for this purpose he imported a few
specimens of the gypsy moth porthe
tria dispaC. By accident some of the
moths escaped through an open win
dow and the unfortunate student at
once gave the alarm. The fugitives were
carefully sought and the ground about
the window was burned over in hope
OF destroying them. Subsequent events
showed that this precaution was futile.
The inhospitable climate of New Eng
land retarded the increase of the moths,
but during the succeeding twenty years
they gained in numbers, and in 1889
they had become devastating army.
About the towns of Medford and NAL
| den, Mass, the worms overwhelmed
everything. All plant life was threat
ened; trees of all sorts were stripped of
their foliage, even grass was de-
voured. The sides of houses and fences.
clothes hung out to dry, passing We
hlcles, everything that afforded lodg-
ment became covered with the squirm-
ing bodies, and the air was laden with
the nauseous odor of the lothsome green
worms. Nothing seemed to produce
any effect on them, and so grave was
the menace that the State authorities
had to interfere. A commission was
appointed in 1890, and in March of that
year $4,000 was appropriated for the
| purpose of exterminating the moths.
!
was used and the infected area was
but little reduced.
OF late years the Gypsy Moth Com
mission has had better success. The
female moth is unable to fly, and SO the
area over Which she can deposit eggs
is restricted. The relentless warfare
waged on them has at last produced re-
suits, and it may be said that this pest
f1s6l
preston has been enormous. The di-
rect monetary expenditure is large, and
the indirect losses occasioned by these
Vofaclous creatures cannot be esti-
mated
In Jamaica the mongoose was intro
duced to exterminate the pest of rats.
the Jamaica cats having failed to do
their duty. The result was that the
rats We're destroyed and the sugar
mills were no longer infested with
them. But the mongoose is a prolific
animal and having no more rats to
feed upon it began upon birds. It
ascended trees and destroyed nests and
nestlings until the birds began to disap-
pear from the islands and insect pests
upon which they had fed put in their
appearance in fearful numbers, SO that
the agricultural interests of the islands
were in imminent danger of destruction.
The Government thereupon had to take
mold of the situation and expended an
enormous sum in exterminating the
mongoose
In Brazil there grows a plant along
some rivers known as the water hya-
cinth- 1t is ornamental and attractive.
and these features prompted some
tnoughtless people to bring some of the
pants to Florida, where they were
| placed in a pond near the st. Johns
River. They grew so luxuriantly there
that they filled the pond, whereupon
they We're torn out and cast into the
river. There, free from natural enc
mics they spread so rapidly that they
choked the stream and impeded navi-
cation. Some Of the smaller streams
tributary to the larger were rendered
| impossible, the net work of plants pre-
venting the passage of the most power
full steamers.
The natural enemy of this plant is a
small red spider native to Brazil.
Florida is now engaged in importing
this insect in order to rid itself of the
hyacinth. To this date, however. no
perceptible effect of the introduction of
the spider has been noted. In the
meantime the hyacinth goes gloriously
on its way. After a time vast matted
bodies of the plant detach themselves,
float down to the sea and are washed
upon the shore where they decay. Gre