Goldsmith's Natural history : with notes from all the popular treatises that have been issued since the time of Goldsmith ... / [edited] by Henry Innes, with a life of Oliver Goldsmith by George Moir Bussey.
- Oliver Goldsmith
- Date:
- [18??]
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Goldsmith's Natural history : with notes from all the popular treatises that have been issued since the time of Goldsmith ... / [edited] by Henry Innes, with a life of Oliver Goldsmith by George Moir Bussey. Source: Wellcome Collection.
843/860 page 467
![gnnt has a large one, which it often exerts to very mischievous purposes.* The tipiila is a harmless, peaceful insect, that offers injury to nothing : the gnat is sanguinary and predaceous, ever seeking out for a place in which to bury its trunk, and pumping up the blood from the animal in large quantities. But the most deitructive and common enemy is the smaller grub of the borer moth 8\igar borer (diatrcea sacc/iari), from which the sugar cane is never exempt. Fortunately, in the seasonable climate of St. Vincent, from our unproved cultivation, the animal is not very fomiulable ; but, in some other of our colonies, which are subject to dry seasons, they have been known to blast the hopes of the year, to destroy whole acres of canes, and ruin the unfortunate jilanter. The borers are much more fatal to plant than ratoon canes : one of the latter will sometimes nourish Several of the borer worms, which perforate every joint; when the pithy centre becoming discoloured and sour, nut only fails to yield at the mill, but communicates a dark colour and bad quality to the syrup of the sounder plauits. The i^cietyof Arts has long offered rewards fur the expulsion of these borers; but a competent writer on the subject thinks the object of the planter should be to prevent the insects from depositing eggs in the plants, ruther than to kill those which have already begun their operations. Indeed, from long continued experiments, he has discovered, that they may be almost entirely expelled from any quarter in which the caueS are carefully stripped of the dry and useless leaves, under which, as they become loose, the female borer deposits her eggs; and, were the ants less ])rolific than they are. we might encourage them as useful helpmates in the destmetiou of the borers, which they pursue and kill in their cylindrical labyrinths. It is worthy of notice, that the grub of the aim weevil, which is the size of the thumb, as long been in request in both Indies. ASlian speaks of an Indian king, who, fur a dessert, instead of fruit, set before his Gre- cian guests a roasted worm taken from a plant, probably the larva of this insect, which, he says, the Indians esteem very de- licious ; a character that was coufirnied by some of the Greeks who tasted it. Madame Merian says, that the natives of Surinam loast and ^at these grubs as something very exquisite ; and, says Mr. Kirby, “ a friend of mine, who has resided a good deal in the West Indies, where the palm grub is called Grugru, informs me, that the late Sir John l<a Forey, who was somewhat of an epicure, was extremely fond of it when properly cooked.’’—Magazine ok Natukai. Hist. • InjU/uks Coumittbu by the TlPU- — The maggots of this family which seem to do most injury, are those of Tipula oleracea, and T. cornicina. In the suniiner of 1828, we observed more than an acre of ground, adjoining the Bishop of Oxford’s garden, at Blackheath, as entirely stripped, both of grass and every thing green, as if the turf had been pared off from the surface, the only plant untouched being the tiny bird tare {Oniithopua perpusillus'). On digging here to learn the cause, we found these larva already full-led, and about to pass into puj)®, after having left nothing upon which they coukl subsist It was not a little remarkable that they seemed to be altogether confined to this spot; for we did not meet with a single foot c>f turf destroyed by them in any other part of the heath, or in the adjacent fields. So very complete, however, was their destruc- tion of the roots on the siHit in question, that even now, at the distance of two years, it is still visibly thinner of herbage than the parts around h. B^amnur gives a similar account of their ravages in Poitou, where, in certain seasons, the grass of the low, moist meadows, has been so parched up in consequence, as not to afford sufficient provender for the cattle. He describes the soil in Poitou as a black peat mould: and it was the same in which we found them at Blackheath, with this differ- ence, that the spot was elevated and dry. According to M. K£aumur, also, their only food is this sort of black mould, and not the routs of grass and herbage, which he thinks are only loosened by their burrowing. This view of the matter appears strongly corro- borated by the fact, that several species of the family feed upon the mould in the holes of decaying trees, particularly the larva of a very beautiful one {Clenophora flaveolata, Meigen), which is very rare in Britain. It is proper to mention, however, that Mr. Stickney’s ‘experiments, contrary to the con- clusions of K£aiimur, indicate that these lurvffi devour the.ruut8 of grass ; and Stewart says, they “ teed on the roots of jtluuts, corn, and grasses, and are thence destructive to gardens, fields, and meadows. They pre- vailed in the neighhuurhood of Edinburgh, and other places in Scotland, in the spring of 1800, when they laid waste whole fieldi of oats and other grain.” In many districts of England these insect* cut off' a large proportion of the wheat crop, particularly, it would appear, when it had been sown on clover leys. “In the rich di*. trict,” says Kirby and Spence, “ of Sunk Island, in Holdemess, in the spring of 1813, hundreds of acres of pasture have been en- tirely destroyed by them, being rendered a* completely brown as if they had suffered a three months’ drought, and destitute of all](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b29010585_0843.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
