PROTECTION 33 
nine hundred and ninety-nine brothers and sisters 
will suffice not only to maintain but also to anemeRt 
the numbers of its race. 
Thus the numerical strength of the seedlings is 
a great safeguard to the species and we can under- 
stand that there is no more need to shed tears over the 
immensely high rate of infant mortality in the vege- 
table world than over the reaping of a wheatfield : 
the green blade and the golden grain alike fulfil one of 
the alternative purposes for which they were created. 
The sacrifice of the seedlings contributes gener- 
ously to the food supply of small animal life, especially 
of the snail and slug kind. It is a too common and a 
very sickening experience for a gardener to find a 
healthy patch of treasured seedlings thinned off the 
face of the soil in a single night by a hungry molluse 
or two. 
Thinning is one of the things that must be done, 
and in cultivation we do it with our fingers ; but Nature 
relies very largely upon the jaws of her hungry children, 
and however distressing it may be to the horticulturist 
such an occurrence as this in the open works for good 
rather than evil. It feeds the hungry snail which has 
its own useful part to play in the Scheme of Creation, 
however much we may discourage him in the garden, 
_ for as a matter of fact snails and slugs that indulge in 
a seedling diet check a numerical increase in this 
species or that, which, if left alone, would soon monopo- 
lize the whole earth. 
Thus in view of the fact that the vegetable kingdom 
has to provide the whole of the food of the animal we 
can reverence the wisdom which endows its members 
with the power of producing seeds which must be 
reckoned in four, five, or even six figures, 
