CHAPTER VI 



THE ENEMIES OF PLANT LIFE 



r |^HE fact that Nature generally preserves 

 -*- a strict balance in the administration of 

 the affairs of her many types of life has had 

 an important bearing on one of the vital activi- 

 ties of the New Earth. Nature believes in 

 legitimate competition. She believes, too, in 

 the survival of the fittest; but under normal 

 conditions she preserves a splendid neutrality, 

 urging only that each factor, plant, or planet, 

 or man shall do their full duty. It is not 

 Nature's way to permit maleficent monopoly, 

 though she encourages legitimate organization 

 and looks favorably upon competition. It is 

 her way to see that no one factor gets the 

 upper hand. We need not follow this line 

 into the realm of the theorists who see in wars 

 and the plague a necessary, and sometimes 

 insufficient, bar to over-population; for here 

 there must, of necessity, be indefiniteness and 

 speculation. If there is any one thing that 



