120 TENANTS OF AN OLD FARM. 



h()ii8L'l<et'i)ing'. The con^^l;lllt ovei^ight of every plant 

 discovers the destroyer and leads to its prompt destruc- 

 tion. The man who daily visits his growing vegetables, 

 with or without ashes or other preventive, will see the 

 canker-worms and kill them. Nor does once going over 

 the crop serve. The worms are legion ; each day has its 

 own host, wiiich must be met that day before devasta- 

 tion begins. I have the notion that the old-time 

 Nodfeur custom may have looked also to this point. 

 Perhaps some wise observer, who knew that men will 

 often maintain good habits l^etter under the spur of a 

 superstition than the stimulus of simple good sense and 

 experience, may have set his neighbors to defend their 

 crops by the invention of a bit of supposed harmless 

 superstition. Or, more likely, the superstition gradually 

 grew around what was originally only a wise rule of 

 successful horticulture." 



"Well, sir," remarked Hugh, "You 're quite right 

 in thinkin' that constant watchin' is tlie great thing in 

 raisin' garden sass. I 've had the best kind o' luck in 

 the very worst years for worms and bugs, jist l)y goin' 

 over and over the wines. I knock off the critters into a 

 pan an' then kill 'em. It 's a good deal o' trouble, but 

 ef a man wants wegetables he 's got to do it, I reckon. 

 There 's alius a few days w'en the varmin is particlar 

 bad, an' by standin' to 't mornin' and evenin' durin' 

 those days a feller '11 come out party Mcll." 



