CHAPTER XXXVIII 

 PLANT ENEMIES 



GARDENING would be too easy if plants had no enemies 

 but the weather. Insects and diseases keep us properly 

 awake, and give us exercise for our wits. 



Insects, first, are equally troublesome above ground and 

 below. They may be classed as chewing and sucking insects, 

 or again as hard-bodied and soft-bodied insects ; and accord- 

 ing as they fall into one class or another 

 they may be fought. 



Some fine morning, for example, you find 

 here and there on your currants, on your 

 potatoes, not leaves, but just the midribs of 

 leaves. You look closer, and find that there 

 are troops of caterpillars, or slugs, or perhaps 

 striped bugs, at work, rapidly eating the 

 FIG. 157. The } eaveSi You have found the currant worm, 



potato bug is a chew- . 



ing insect. or the potato bug or his children. Or again 



you find holes drilled everywhere on the 

 leaves of your tomatoes, and discover that they are made by 

 little black shiny beetles, very small, which jump when you try 

 to touch them. You have found the flea-beetle. Or the leaves 

 of your roses are curling or wrinkling, while on the under 

 part are groups of tiny, pale, soft bugs. These are aphis, 

 members of a great and very active family ; they are sucking 

 the juices of the plants. 



If your garden is small, probably the simplest thing to do 



284 



