File:New elementary agriculture for rural and graded schools; an elementary text book dealing with the plants, insects, birds, weather, and animals of the farm (1903) (14563091028).jpg

Identifier: newelementaryagr00bess (find matches)
Title: New elementary agriculture for rural and graded schools; an elementary text book dealing with the plants, insects, birds, weather, and animals of the farm
Year: 1903 (1900s)
Authors: Bessey, Charles Edwin, 1845-1915 Bruner, Lawrence, joint author Swezey, Goodwin DeLoss, joint author
Subjects: Agriculture
Publisher: Lincoln, Neb., The University Publishing Co.
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: Sloan Foundation

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at good are flies? is one of the questionsthat often come up in the minds of persons who do notuse their eyes. If such persons would only look, theywould see a great many things about the lives of differ-ent kinds of flies that are useful. When an animaldies, or a piece of meat decays, large numbers of fliesgather about it. In a short time they lay their eggsupon it, or blow it as we sometimes say, and soonmaggots appear in large numbers and eat it up. Othersof these flies have a habit of laying their eggs upon thebodies of caterpillars, grasshoppers, and plant lice. USEFUL INSECTS 63 These eggs soon produce maggots which bore into thebodies of their hosts; and, Hke the grubs of the ichneu-mon flies described on another page, cause their death.Many of our grasshoppers are destroyed each year bythese grubs of flies, as are also numerous cut-wormsand other caterpillars. The insects, like the ichneumonand flesh flies, which live in the bodies of and kill theirhosts, are called parasites.
Text Appearing After Image:
Fig. 24. Dragon flies. Dragon Flies.—Sometimes we learn to call things bywrong names. This is simply because the personswho named them in the first place did not know muchabout their ways of living. So when certain insectswere called snake feeders or darning-needles,there was this kind of a mistake made, and we should doall we can to correct it. We know that these insects donot feed snakes, just as well as we know that they willnot sew up our ears. But they do spend much of theirtime flying about and eating all kinds of mosquitoes,gnats, and small flies. So destructive and fierce are theyamong these to us troublesome insects that they are 64 NEW ELEMENTARY AGRICULTURE the veritable dragons of the air. Hence dragon fliesis a very good name for them. Or, if we prefer to callthem mosquito hawks, we can do so, for they spendmost of their time chasing and catching mosquitoes, ofwhich they are very fond. A few years ago a prize wasoffered to the person who would write the best essayon way

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