That mysterious
stepmother of ours was really riled by my experiments and determined to
circumvent every agricultural ambition.
She detailed a bug for every root, worms to build nests on every tree,
others to devour every leaf, insects to attack every flower, drought or
deluge to ruin the crops, grasshoppers to finish everything that was
left.
Potato bugs swooped down on my fields by tens of thousands, and when
somewhat thinned in ranks by my unceasing war, would be re-enforced from
a neighbor's fields, once actually fording my lakelet to get to my
precious potato patch. The number and variety of devouring pests
connected with each vegetable are alarming. Here are a few connected
closely with the homely cabbage, as given by a noted helminthologist
under the head of "Cut-worms":
"Granulated," "shagreened," "white," "marked," "greasy," "glassy,"
"speckled," "variegated," "wavy," "striped," "harlequin," "imbricated,"
"tarnished." The "snout beetle" is also a deadly foe.
To realize this horror, this worse than Pharaoh plague, you must either
try a season of farming or peruse octavo volumes on Insects injurious to
Vegetation, fully illustrated.
In those you may gain a faint idea of the "skippers," "stingers,"
"soothsayers," "walking sticks or specters," "saw flies and slugs,"
"boring caterpillars," "horn-tailed wood wasps," etc., etc., etc., etc.,
etc.--a never-ending list. The average absolute loss of the farmers of
this country from such pests is fully one million dollars per annum.
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