Farmers Cyclopedia, Vol. 6 of 7

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Excerpt from Farmers Cyclopedia, Vol. 6 of 7: Abridged Agricultural Records in Seven VolumesWhen we consider the immense numbers of insects that exist in all parts of the habitable globe the task, to give in a few printed pages even an outline of their classification, seems to be a more than futile effort. Moreover, any classification of this multitude of forms (one million species of existing insects is not an exaggerated esti mate) must be a more or less artificial one.Geologists speak of the age of shells, of fishes, of reptiles, periods all passed long ago, and they might well call the present geological age the age of insects, because these animals outnumber all others combined. In fact insects are found ln every part of the globe that man has ever been able to reach, with the exception of the oceans, where they are replaced by closely allied animals, the crustaceans. And yet, notwithstanding the abundance of insects and their almost omnipresence, how few persons are really able to give a definition of an insect? The term insect is derived from two latin words in and seco - eut into, because the body is insected or divided into rings. At one time this term was applied to the entire group of articulates or jointed animals, and consequently early writers spoke of six-legged, eight-legged, many-legged insects. Articulates or jointed animals, which by persons not familiar with zoology are tre quently called insects are: Wood-lice or Sow-bugs, Mites and Ticks, Spiders, Harvestmen, Book-scorpions, True-scorpions, Centipedes Thousand-legs and others not found ln Minnesota. None of these animals possess the essential characters of true insects.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.