248 Appendix. 



brethren, count it all joy when you fall into divers temptations." That temp- 

 tations, liere, mean trials is evident from what follows : "Knowing this, that 

 the trying of your faith worketh patience." Now, trials may be undesirable 

 and grevious to be borne, but if they increase our stock of patience we are 

 most certainly benefited. In the same way we can account for the saying 

 of the apostle Paul : "But we glory in tribulations also." It is well known 

 that our English word tribulation is derived from the Latin tribulum, which 

 means that part of the flail that threshed out the grain and separated it from 

 the chaff. A goodly number of us at best need some of that kind of flagellation 

 at times. The chastisement we received from our parents may often have 

 seemed grevious, but afterwards yielded the peaceable fruits of righteousness. 

 In like manner the struggles of the student in burning the midnight oil, resulting 

 often times in headache and sometimes the backache, gives that intellectual 

 strength and mental discipline that constitute the real elements of education. 

 Likewise, the outdoor work and hard knocks of the boy brought up on the farm, 

 give him a physical development that is a rich heritage for his whole life. 

 How vividly come to my mind some things witnessed in my college days. Large, 

 strong and uncouth boys from the farm would make their appearance in the 

 college halls and be laughed at by some of the thin, pale-looking, spindle- 

 shanked boys from the city. But wait a few years, and then we would see the 

 big, uncouth country boy. slicked up somewhat in his outward appearance, 

 forging ahead at a rate absolutely unattainable by the city weakling, and then 

 was verified the old saying that, "H-^ laughs best who laughs last." Ninety per 

 cent of all the the men who reach eminence are made strong by toil of some 

 kind in thlr boyhood, and gain strength by overcoming difiiculties in the way. 



With this survey of the field before us, it need not be a matter of surprise 

 that it is claimed there is a beneficial side to the pest question. The word pest 

 is here used to denote "that which is very noxious, mischievous or destructive" 

 (Webster). Pest may belong to the animal, vegetable or mineral kingdom. 

 The horticulturist has mainly to contend with vegetable and animal pests. Under 

 the heads of weeds and fungi we may classify the most of the vegetable pests, 

 while the most of our animal pests are insects. Can we see anything bene- 

 ficial in weeds? Not directly. But I hestitate not to say that the farmers 

 of the United States have been benefited to the extent of millions and millions 

 of dollars by the presence of weeds in their fields. Why does the average farmer 

 till his soil. To kill the weeds, and if the weeds were not there the til- 

 ling would not be done in most cases. Now, it is well known to the thoroughly 

 educated farmer that liis soil should be tilled if there were not a weed to be 

 found on the farm. Moreover, some of the best tillirg should be done before 

 the weeds make their appearance, or the seed for our contemplated crop is 

 of dollars by the presence of weeds, and if the weeds were not there the til- 

 committed to the earth. I hazzard nothing in saying tliat the chief aim in 

 tilling the soil should be to fine the earth so that it can give up its fertility, 

 and, also, to conserve moisture. In my boyhood days, when I plowed "from 

 sun to sun." I had but one object before me, that was to kill rag-weed, foxtail, 

 purslane, sunflowers and other weeds. If anyone had suggested to me in those 

 days that the soil should be stirred for any other purpose than to kill weeds, I 

 should probably have said, as soon as he got away, "Poor man, he is not all 

 there, they'll soon liave him in the asylum for the insane." The vast majority 

 of farmers in the past, and vastly too many at the present time, had. and have, 

 the same idea I had in my boyhod days. They toiled and sweat, and sometimes 

 swore, at the weeds and kept up the fight, and without knowing it got a great 

 benefit from fining the soil, all of which they would have missed but for the pres- 

 ence of that class of pests. Score one, and a big one, to. for weeds. 



Now, it will not be claimed that in all cases there will be so much indirect 

 benefit in fighting pests. In many cases we do not yet know of any benefits 

 derived from our efforts to control or eradicate certain pests. In using the 

 Bordeaux mixture in my first spraying eacli year for the codling moth, which 



