PART VI: PLANT PROTECTION. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

 METHODS AGAINST PLANT PESTS AND DISEASES. 



We have comforted the reader thus far with the assurance that 

 there are policies of explanation, concession and reconciliation for 

 all his hardships and difficulties. Now we order him out on the firing 

 line; he has to fight and he must fight wisely and well. Qualification 

 for this is not easy nor hastily acquired. It must be pursued through 

 the manuals on insects, fungous diseases, etc., of which there are 

 several good ones. Fortunately there are also many branches of the 

 public service which may be appealed to for information: the Agricul- 

 tural Experiment Station at Berkeley, the State Horticultural Com- 

 missioner at Sacramento, the County Horticultural Commissioner and 

 the County Farm Adviser at the county seats of most counties, the 

 science teachers in the local high schools all these will help you to 

 identify insects, blights, mildews, etc., which you may find in your 

 garden and to apply the proper remedies. For knowledge of the 

 character and vulnerability of insects, which are more abundant in 

 every garden than all other forms of life combined, there is fortunately 

 an excellent treatise available free of cost, and every plant-grower 

 should supply himself with it.* With all the help he can get, however, 

 the amateur should never relax the determination to understand the 

 pest and disease problems which arise in his own experience, and 

 should make constant effort, by patient observation, toward that end. 



FOR INSECTS, BLIGHTS AND MILDEWS. 



It is fortunate for the amateur who usually works on a small area 

 and with many kinds of plants which do not call for large quantities 

 of materials at the same moment, that the manufacture of insecticides 

 and fungicides has been so extended that one can buy preparations in 

 small packages or cans for nearly all the pests and diseases he is likely 

 to encounter. They cost more than home-made stuff, but you save all 

 the time and trouble of cooking and mussing and of getting into 

 mortal combat with the cook. It is fortunate also that you can get 

 simple atomizers, sprayers, dusters, blowers, etc., for the application of 

 liquids or powders for different kinds of insects or fungi, and they are 

 inexpensive and light in weight, so that any one can use them effect- 

 ively. All the catalogues of California seedsmen offer such materials 

 and appliances, and the amateur should have a war-cabinet in his tool 



*"Injurious and Beneficial Insects of California," 1915; by E. O. Essig to be had 

 by application to State Commissioner of Horticulture, Sacramento. 



