A  plague  of  grubs  finds  us,  in  fact,  just  as  helpless  as
our  forefathers  in  the  Middle  Ages,  and  almost  more  hope-
less, for  we  no  longer  believe  in  trying  to  "banish"  our
enemies,  and  we  have  not  yet  discovered  any  more  effec-
tual means  of  dealing  with  them.  When  the  infliction
comes,  we  talk  mysteriously  of  "blight"  and  "weather";
and  it  seldom  occurs  to  us  to  connect  the  increase  of  grubs

267


268  The  Great  World's  Farm

with  the  destruction  of  birds,  even  though  we  must  know,
as  a  matter  of  fact,  that  the  latter  Hve  mainly  upon  the
former,  and  that  therefore  for  every  bird  killed,  so  many
grubs  must  be  left  alive.
It  is  now  some  thirty  years  since  piteous  complaints
were  rife  in  Germany  and  Switzerland  of  the  alarming
increase  in  the  number  of  destructive  insects,  which  made
their  appearance  in  overwhelming  swarms,  and  inflicted
the  greatest  injury  on  the  fields.  And  at  last  it  occurred
to  the  authorities  that  insects  had  multiplied  because  birds
had  to  so  large  an  extent  vanished.  The  "militia"  had,
in  fact,  been  either  killed  off  or  driven  away;  they  had
been  destroyed  in  the  most  insane  manner,  in  ignorance
and  sheer  wantonness ;  and  also  they  had  been  *  *  improved' '
away  by  the  spread  of  agriculture.  In  whatsoever  way  it
had  come  to  pass,  the  result  was  the  same — there  were
fewer  birds,  there  were  more  grubs;  and  as  the  latter
increase  much  more  rapidly  than  the  former,  the  prospect
was  a  dismal  one.     The  land  was  being  devoured.
