Half hours with insects . ng the peo-ple that days of fasting and^, .? prayer were appointed, on account of the threatenedcalamity. Dr. Harris thusquotes from P r e s i d c n tDwights Travels: Theirh voracity extends to almost Destructive Grasshoppers. „ i ii„ „ „„ i„ ^^ every vegetable; even to the tobacco plant and the burdock. Nor are they confined tovegetables alone. The gaiments of laborers, hung up in thefield while they are at work, these insects destroy in a fewhours, and with the same voracity they devour the loose par-ticles which the saw leaves upon the surface of pine boards,and wh
Half hours with insects . ng the peo-ple that days of fasting and^, .? prayer were appointed, on account of the threatenedcalamity. Dr. Harris thusquotes from P r e s i d c n tDwights Travels: Theirh voracity extends to almost Destructive Grasshoppers. „ i ii„ „ „„ i„ ^^ every vegetable; even to the tobacco plant and the burdock. Nor are they confined tovegetables alone. The gaiments of laborers, hung up in thefield while they are at work, these insects destroy in a fewhours, and with the same voracity they devour the loose par-ticles which the saw leaves upon the surface of pine boards,and which, when separated, are termed sawdust. The ap-pearance of a board fence from which the particles had beeneaten in this manner, and which I saw, was novel and sin-gular ; and seemed the result, not of the operations of theplane, but of attrition. At times, particularly a little beforetheir disappearance, they collect in clouds, rise high in the at-mosphere, and take extensive flights, of which neither the 4. PAcicAKD.] INSECTS OF THE GARDEN. 5 cause nor the direction has hitherto been discovered. I v/asauthentically informed that some persons cmplojed in raisingthe steeple of the church in NVilliamstown, were, Tvliilc stand-ing near the vane, covered by them, and saw, at the sametime, vast swarms of them flying far above their heads. Itis to be observed, however, that they customarily return andperish on the ver}- grounds which they have ravaged. Inthe western plains the long-winged Caloptenus (C. sjyretus,Fig. 1 a) is still more destructive. I might also cite the annual loss sustained by the attacksof the wheat midge and Hessian fly, the state of New Yorkhaving lost, according to Dr. Fitch, 812,000,000 worth ofwheat in one j-ear. 100,000 bushels of wheat could be raisedannually in the state of JMaine if it were not for these twoinsects. Among the more formidable pests in the south andwest are the cotton boll worm, army worm and the chinchbug, from which farmers an
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectinsects, bookyear1881
